Collective bargaining with the university’s six unionized employee groups is scheduled to occur throughout 2022 and early 2023. This web page is a source of accurate information about the collective bargaining process and is designed to keep you informed of the state of collective bargaining at UVic.
The employee groups
- CUPE 917: athletic department, food services, grounds maintenance and janitorial employees, security officers and tradespeople.
- CUPE 951: office employees, library assistants, technicians and child care 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.
BC bargaining mandate
Since 1993, bargaining in the broader BC public sector has been governed by negotiation mandates established by the provincial government. For example, the university and our unions negotiated agreements under the provincial 2019 Sustainable Services Negotiating Mandate in the previous round of bargaining.
In 2022, 184 unions representing approximately 393,000 public sector employees in British Columbia started renegotiating collective agreements with public-sector employers (school districts, hospitals, universities, crown corporations) under a new provincial Shared Recovery Mandate. Nearly three-quarters (or 289,000) of all unionized public-sector employees are covered by tentative or ratified agreements reached under BC’s Shared Recovery Mandate.
Current status of collective bargaining
As of Mar. 17, 2023, employees represented by five of UVic’s six unions are now covered by ratified or tentative agreements under the BC government’s Shared Recovery Mandate. The following provides an update on the status of collective bargaining with each union at UVic.
UVic update
- Collective bargaining with Component 3 of CUPE local 4163, representing Sessional Instructors and Music Performance Instructors, began on Sept. 29 and concluded with a tentative agreement on Nov. 28. The agreement, which will be in effect May 1, 2022 to Apr. 30, 2025, was successfully ratified by the union and its members on Dec. 9, and by the university’s Board of Governors on Dec. 13.
- Collective bargaining with the PEA, representing more than 1,100 professional staff and middle managers at UVic began in October and concluded on Dec. 16 with a tentative agreement. The agreement, which will be in effect July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025, was successfully ratified by the union and its members and by the university’s Board of Governors in January. Human Resources will be leading the communication and implementation efforts over the coming weeks.
- Following months of negotiations, a collective agreement between the University of Victoria and the Faculty Association has been ratified under the BC government’s Shared Recovery Mandate. The agreement, which represents more than 960 faculty members and librarians at UVic, will be in effect July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025.
- Collective bargaining with CUPE local 917, representing up to 1,000 staff, started on Oct. 14 and concluded with a tentative agreement on Mar. 7. The vote for this tentative agreement took place on Mar. 17 without being ratified. The union will be reviewing this situation over the upcoming week. It is too early to know how this affects the agreement that was reached with the union at the bargaining table on March 7.
- Collective bargaining with CUPE local 951, representing up to 900 staff, started on Oct. 13 and concluded with a tentative agreement on Mar. 3.
- Collective bargaining for Components 1 & 2 of CUPE local 4163, representing two component groups, including Teaching Assistants and Language Instructors—each with separate collective agreement language—began on Dec. 12 and concluded on Feb. 15 with a tentative agreement. The agreement, which will be in effect Sept. 1, 2022 to Aug. 31, 2025, was successfully ratified by the union and its members on Feb. 28 and by the university's Board of Governors on Mar. 2.
BC universities and colleges
Bargaining is well underway at most BC research universities and post-secondary institutions. In addition to the six agreements reached at our institution, a number have been settled under the Shared Recovery Mandate at five of the six research universities including UBC, TRU, UNBC and RRU. View a full listing
Provincial update
As reported last month, milestone tentative agreements have been reached between the Facilities Bargaining Association and the Health Employers’ Association of BC, between the BCGEU and the Public Service Agency and between the CUPE K-12 Presidents Council, representing support staff working in school districts and the BC Public School Employers’ Association. Most recently, agreements were reached between the BC Public Service and the PEA, between the BC Public School Employers’ Association and the union representing BC’s 49,000 teachers, and the between the Health Employers’ Association of BC and the union representing over 21,000 Health Sciences professionals.
These and other tentative and ratified agreements cover nearly three-quarters or 290,000 of the 393,000 unionized employees across the BC public sector and have all been negotiated under the province’s 2022 Shared Recovery Mandate.
Key elements of the 2022 Shared Recovery Mandate and the agreements noted above include a three-year term, with provisions addressing general wage increases and the impacts of inflation. All tentative and ratified agreements to date provide a $0.25-per-hour (or equivalent) wage increase plus a 3.24% wage increase on top of that, retroactive to April 1, 2022 (for those agreements renewed as of that date). In year two, depending on the rate of inflation, employees represented by these unions will receive a wage increase of 5.5 to 6.75%. In year three, the inflation-dependent wage increase will be 2-3%.
Given the challenging labour market and the expected positive impact that the basic general wage increases and cost-of-living adjustments associated with the Shared Recovery Mandate will have on our employees’ salaries in these unusual inflationary times, our goal is to conclude agreements with our unions at the earliest opportunity.
Salary adjustments negotiated through collective bargaining will be processed as soon as possible after an agreement is reached and ratified.