Collective bargaining with the university’s six unionized employee groups, representing 6,755 employees, is expected to occur throughout 2025 and the early half of 2026. This web page is a source of accurate information about the collective bargaining process and is designed to keep you informed about the state of collective bargaining at UVic.
UVic employee groups
Unions represent 95.2% of the 7,098 people employed by UVic. The remaining 4.8% include union-exempt professional and administrative support staff (1.7%) and faculty-excluded, management-excluded and executive employees (3.1%). Unionized employees are represented by:
- CUPE 917: athletic department, food services, grounds maintenance and janitorial employees, security officers and tradespeople
- CUPE 951: office employees, library assistants, technicians and childcare workers
- CUPE 4163 - Components 1 and 2: teaching assistants, lab assistants, French and English language instructors, and community leaders
- CUPE 4163 - Component 3: sessional instructors and music performance instructors
- The Faculty Association: regular faculty, limited-term faculty appointments and librarians
- The Professional Employees Association (PEA): administrative and academic professional employees
Provincial bargaining context
In 2025, 182 unions representing approximately 452,750 unionized public-sector employees in British Columbia will be renegotiating collective agreements with public-sector employers (school districts, hospitals, universities, crown corporations) under a new provincial Balanced Measures collective bargaining mandate.
Since 1993, bargaining in the broader BC public sector has been governed by negotiation mandates established by the provincial government. Past mandates have reflected the political/economic environment at that time. For example, the government focused the 2022 Shared Recovery bargaining mandate on providing a fair and reasonable offer to public-sector workers that included significant inflation protection, while ensuring that government had the resources to continue to invest in building a stronger province for everyone.
Provincial bargaining update
Last updated: May 12, 2026
Bargaining continues to proceed based on the Province's 2025 Balanced Measures collective bargaining mandate. Over 70% (324,786) of unionized employees across the broader public sector are now covered by ratified or tentative agreements. These agreements include:
- the BCGEU, representing 35,600 public service employees
- the Facilities Bargaining Association, representing 67,500 healthcare workers
- the BCTF, representing 52,600 teachers
- the Health Science Professionals’ (HSPBA), representing 25,000 health sciences professions
- the PEA, representing 1900 public service professionals
- CUPE 116, representing 2700 support staff at UBC
- UBC Faculty Association, representing 4700 faculty members at UBC
Each ratified or tentative agreement features a 3% general wage increase in each year of the agreement (2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028), consistent with the 2025 Balanced Measures Mandate.
Keep watching this site for information about updates to the status of collective bargaining across the broader public sector. Negotiations are actively underway in all parts of the broader public sector including healthcare, K-12, crown corporations and in the research university sector.
Current status of collective bargaining at UVic
Last updated: May 12, 2026
On May 11, 2026 a tentative collective agreement was reached based on the Province’s 2025 Balanced Measures Mandate between the University of Victoria and the Professional Employees’ Association (PEA), representing over 1200 administrative and academic professional employees at UVic. The tentative agreement, which will be in effect July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2029, is subject to ratification by the union and its members, and by the university’s Board of Governors.
Bargaining continues with the Faculty Association, CUPE 951, CUPE 917, and Component 3 of CUPE 4163. UVic HR staff are working with the other staff unions to book dates to begin bargaining in the coming months. Please click on the above tabs for the respective unions to learn more about the status of collective bargaining for each bargaining table.
It will be our goal to conclude agreements with our unions at the earliest opportunity. Salary adjustments and retroactive payments negotiated through collective bargaining will be processed as soon as possible, once an agreement is reached and ratified. Until that occurs, please be assured that the current collective agreements remain in full effect until new agreements are negotiated and ratified by bargaining unit members.