Monday, July 26, 1993

MY THANKS to Martin Van Nierop, who created emergency Daily Bulletins
on July 19, 20, 21 and 22.  Some of those Bulletins appeared on
uw.general and others through an ad hoc item on the UWinfo menu.
Their text is now available under the "_Previous days" heading.

Back from vacation, I will be producing the Daily Bulletin for the
next little while; there may be another break during August.

SOCIAL CONTRACT:  UW management and the staff association signed an
agreement Friday on how the Social Contract payroll cuts are to be
applied to non-union staff.  It provides for a three-year pay freeze
(except for promotion increases) and three unpaid days off in each
year: 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96.  There is a promise of no more
redundancy (layoff) notices at least until May 1, 1994.

Provost Jim Kalbfleisch says this Local Agreement, together with the 
Sectoral Agreement signed by the universities and the Ontario government,
should mean that UW will receive a $1.4 million discount in its annual 
Social Contract target. Without the discount, a total of 10 more unpaid 
days would be required over the three years, and compensation losses 
would be greater by $4.2 million.

Faculty members and unionized staff haven't signed Social Contract
agreements yet.  The deadline is this Friday, July 30.  If no agreements
are reached, UW will be required to use the "failsafe" provision in
the Social Contract Act, and Kalbfleisch said that the plan imposed by
management will match what was agreed to by staff -- a pay freeze and
three unpaid days a year.  He noted that the discount in the target 
will benefit all employees -- faculty, staff and members of CUPE 
-- who earn more than $30,000.  For instance, since nearly 60 per cent 
of total salaries over $30,000 are faculty salaries, the discount will 
save faculty members about $2.5 million over three years.  Savings to
non-union staff members will be about $1.5 million over the three years,
and members of CUPE will save about $200,000.

A memo detailing the staff agreement was sent to staff members this
morning.  It notes that pay reductions caused by the three unpaid days
"will be deducted from paycheques at a uniform rate for the nine months
left in the 1993-94 fiscal year".  In other words, look for gross pay 
to drop by 1.5 per cent in each cheque starting with the one that arrives
at the end of August.

UW will be closed Monday, February 21, 1994, and staff will take one
of their three unpaid days then.  (Staff earning less than $30,000,
who are protected from pay cuts by the Social Contract Act, can take
the day unpaid if they wish, or else use a day of holiday.)  The other
two unpaid days can be taken any time in 1993-94, by arrangement between
the individual and the department head -- just like holiday days.

At a meeting of department heads this morning, Kalbfleisch described 
other budget cuts that UW is making to deal with Ontario government
"expenditure reductions".  They include a cancellation of the 2 per cent
increase to each department's non-salary budget that was to be available
in 1993-94, and a 0.4 per cent general cut to department budgets this
year (which can be made through one-time savings such as not filling a
position for a few weeks).

In addition, the discount on textbooks at the UW bookstore will be
reduced from the present 8 per cent to 4 per cent, starting in January.

The board of governors is scheduled to meet at 4:30 today (Needles Hall
room 3001) and will be asked to approve the agreement with staff, as well
as authorizing the president to sign an agreement with the faculty
association and CUPE if such an agreement can be reached by Friday.
There is still room -- and need -- for considerable "movement" by both
sides in the faculty negotiations, said Ian Macdonald, a faculty
association spokesman, at this morning's meeting.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE:  In a memo dated today, president Jim Downey
announces that three senior officials who have been reporting to the
provost will now report to him instead.  They are the vice-president
(university relations), Roger Downer; the secretary of the university,
Lois Claxton; and the dean of research, Arthur Carty.  The change is made
to lighten the provost's workload "and to increase the President's
involvement in the internal operations of the University".

MURDER CHARGE:  Kris Eric Warkentin, the UW engineering undergraduate
student charged with the second-degree murder of graduate student
David Zaharchuk, has been committed for trial after a three-day 
preliminary hearing in provincial court last week.  Trial date must 
still be set.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs
credmond@watserv1    ext. 3004