Merit steps have not become automatic increases. I honestly don't know how you could have read the Collective Agreement and come to that conclusion, James.
I worked hard for the 1.5 merit step I earned on my last salary review. I'm very pleased to be getting a, roughly, $3000 raise in September. If we were on the old system my raise would have been a big fat $0.
Ronda Arab
Sent from my iPad
I take it from the below that "merit" steps have, in effect, become automatic increases. A trade-off for the shrinking of each discrete step. (Redistribution.)
My 1.75 bits: The merit review process was already out of whack with its output. That is: significant busywork for both the faculty member under review, and the TPC doing the reviewing--without much at stake. In my department, at least, most members of the under-review cohort would get, in the end, either a 1 or a 1.5. (The .5 difference always reminds me of Henry Kissinger's remark about why academic politics are so intense.)
If the stakes have now become even smaller, is it time to reconsider the process?
JD Fleming English
Dear SFUFA members:
Step values for this year's salary increments have now been calculated. As negotiated in the last round of collective bargaining, we have moved from a system of fixed step values to a floating system based on salary mass. In the last two scales of the old system, a step was valued at $2799.59 (July 1, 2016) and $2745.72 (September 1, 2013), but ceilings and various limits in the salary system meant that between 250 and 350 members actually received no salary increases associated with their step awards. Total monies paid to faculty through the step system ranged from $1.5 million to $1.9 million. The Regular Step Award (RSA) value for September 1, 2017 is $1988.59 per step (below the breakpoint of each rank). The Modified Step Award (MSA), calculated as 0.6 * RSA is $1193.15 per step (above the breakpoint of each rank). Promotion steps are valued at $2546.25 (tenure track), $2387.11 (teaching track) and $2227.97 (Librarian/Archivists), representing 1/32nd of the Floor of Assistant, Lecturer and Librarian/Archivist 2 ranks respectively. These individual step amounts are lower than in previous years ($2799.59 for all ranks in 2016), but in fact amount to a significant increase in the total dollars paid to SFUFA members, and a much wider distribution of steps than was previously the case. As the value of the floors for these ranks increases in coming years, so too will the dollar value of a step awarded upon promotion.
This year, though the value per step has decreased, over 99 percent of members will see step increases paid to them, and the total value of increments paid out is over $3 million which is a significant increase from the last few years where many people were at hard ceilings.
Nine of the ten days in your next pay will be based on the pre- September 1 salary. The full impact of your step increases will appear on the September 15 paystub. Should you have any questions or concerns about your increase after that time, please contact Karim Dossa in Faculty Relations ( dossa@sfu.ca). Salary letters reflecting these increases are anticipated to be made available in mid to late October.
Brian Green, SFUFA Doug Thorpe Dorward, Faculty Relations --
James Dougal Fleming
Professor, Department of English
Simon Fraser University 778-782-4713
Burnaby -- British Columbia -- Canada.
Against armbands.
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