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April 30, 2002
TO: MUFA Librarians
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April 30, 2002
TO: MUFA Librarians
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On April 23, 2002 the Librarians Negotiating Committee came to an agreement for librarians that to some extent mirrors the approved faculty agreement. The policy concerning Librarian Negotiations, approved in Fall 2001, facilitated the negotiation of this agreement. There were problems, however, in that certain items, as discussed below, which MUFA and librarians believed could be adopted in the librarian agreement became a subject of interpretation and, hence, negotiation.The three-year term of the faculty agreement and the 3% ATB were accepted readily. The $500 “market adjustment” became an issue because it was not clearly invoked as a “lump sum” payment in the faculty agreement. We were able to achieve a $200 lump sum amount added to librarians’ base salary. This represents an additional .33% increase on the average salary of $60,000 (approximate). This means that the increase on the average salary would be $1800 + $200 or $2000 for 2002/03.
As in the faculty agreement, salary scales will be increased by 6.4% for 2002/03. This is critical for librarians as it was for faculty. This increase will help to recoup some of the erosion that librarian salary scales have suffered because of the negligible ATB increases that have occurred over the past ten years. Librarians who have performed well and have received reasonable merit increases or increases because of changes in position, potentially could be approaching their maximums, thus precluding their receiving ATB or merit. Essentially the 6.4% increase in scale raises the limits of the ranges and provides room for ATB and merit.
The amount to be assigned to the merit pool was another area of contention in negotiation. The policy states that the merit amount should be based on 2.43% (cost of CP/M agreed to in 1999) or the amount agreed to in the Joint Committee with respect to the faculty agreement. In the current faculty agreement, the Joint Committee was unable to agree on a cost of CP/M and, hence, they made no announcement on this issue. Consequently, MUFA argued that the librarian merit pool should be 2.43% less the average number of librarian promotions over five years converted to a percentage (11/5 = 2.2 x 100% or 0.22%). Therefore the merit pool should be 2.21%. We agreed to use this calculation for 2002/03 merit and to refer the issue of the cost of CP/M back to the Joint Committee. Calculation of merit for 2003/04 and 2004/05 will be based on the protocol from the Joint Committee. Should the Joint Committee be unable to reach an agreement of the cost of CP/M, librarian merit will be based on the policy, i.e., 2.43%.
We were happy that we were able to negotiate a major increase in the librarian PDA. For 2002/03, LPDA increases to $900 (an amount which includes the modem pool funding previously done separately) and to $1000 by the end of the agreement in 2004/05.
As in the faculty agreement, librarians’ dental benefits have improved — claims will now be based on the current year ODA schedule and implants have been added to the major restorative benefit for salaried librarians.
Finally, a bereavement policy, similar to that negotiated by MUSA, has been developed for librarians. This fills an identified void in librarian policies.
In all, the agreement we reached for MUFA librarians is, we believe, a reasonable one. Although there was some disagreement over the interpretation of our approved policy for librarian compensation negotiations, in the main, the policy served its purpose and helped us to reach agreement. We urge you to attend the librarian information meeting on Wednesday, May 8, 2002 at 12:00 noon in the Multipurpose Room in Mills Memorial Library and to vote in favour of the agreement.