M E M O R A N D U M      May 9, 2005      TO:  MUFA Librarians      FROM:  Mike Veall, Chair, Remuneration Committee                       RE:  Librarians Remuneration Agreement

Attached you will find a copy of the Agreement negotiated in the Librarians Negotiating Committee, dated May 4, 2005.  The representatives of MUFA were Barbara McDonald and Nora Gaskin of the Library and Mike Veall (Department of Economics and Chair of the Remuneration Committee).

The Agreement is governed by the Librarian Policy on Salary and Benefits Negotiations approved by the Board of Governors on October 25, 2001. That agreement helps to “translate” the Joint Committee Agreement ratified by faculty on March 29, 2005 to an agreement covering librarians.  Hence the across-the-board increase and the benefits increases in the Agreement are the same as those in the faculty agreement.

There were three remaining remuneration items:

1. The increase in the Librarian Professional Development Allowance of $100 is larger than the $50 increase negotiated with faculty and hence there is some progress towards equalizing the two professional development allowances. 
   
   
2. There is an agreement that regularizes treatment and enshrines benefits for contractually limited librarian appointees, broadly similar to a recently concluded agreement for contractually limited faculty appointees.
   
   
3. There are important improvements to the Research Leave Policy, providing a total across the library system of up to 60 weeks of such leave (compared to the previous total of 26 weeks), with the possibilities of a maximum 52 week leave and short-term leaves for new librarians or librarians who have never had a leave before.  There is an anticipated transition period of one fiscal year to this new policy regarding short-term leaves during which the number of short-term leaves will be very limited, but the MUFA committee is pleased with the overall direction.

Finally with respect to a non-remuneration item, the MUFA membership procedures for librarians will now be the same as for faculty:  that is, librarians will automatically be members of MUFA unless they opt out by paying an amount equal to MUFA membership fees to a designated recipient, currently the McMaster University Student Centre.  This agreement is "grandparented" so that any current librarian who is not a member of MUFA will not be subject to it.

You will note the agreement explicitly excludes from membership the University Librarian and the Director of the Health Sciences Library.  MUFA did not support this exclusion but preferred the same option to be a member of MUFA that has been extended (and accepted) by the President
and the Provost.  However the committee felt that this difference should not be allowed to get in the way of the overall Agreement.

Indeed, overall the negotiations were very cordial, constructive and progressive and the MUFA Librarians Remuneration Committee unanimously supports the resulting Agreement, which we believe is very good.  We recommend it to the membership without hesitation and encourage you to attend the Information Meeting on Tuesday, May 17, 2005, 2:00-3:00 pm in the Multipurpose Room of Mills Memorial Library.