Staff salary settlement will go to BoG

Increased salary ranges to be implemented over two years, and longer vacation time, are among the recommendations the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Staff Compensation will submit to the Board of Governors on April 1.

Provost Amit Chakma has approved the settlement worked out by the committee. The memo detailing the full list of recommendations is available on the Secretariat website. Below is a slightly abridged version.

Open house

In accord with Policy 5, Salary Administration, University Support Staff, the Committee puts forth the following recommendations.

1. a) Effective April 30, 2008, increase the salary ranges by 2% with no consequent adjustment to salaries. This will have the effect of lowering the compa ratio (an individual’s position in the range relative to job value/mid-point) of all staff by approximately 2%.
b) Effective May 1, 2008, increase the salary ranges by a further 3% and run the merit program based on the 3% increase to job value/mid-point.

2. a) Effective April 30, 2009, increase the salary ranges by 1.5% or more with no consequent adjustment to salaries. This figure may need to be increased in order to deliver a similar increase relative to that provided in 2008. The precise amount will not be known until the 2008 salary program is completed.
b) Effective May 1, 2009, increase the salary ranges by a further 3% and run the merit program based on the 3% increase to job value/mid-point.

3. Enhance the vacation entitlement to provide for four weeks after four years of service.

4. 3% increase to the Staff Training and Development Fund on May 1, 2008 and May 1, 2009.

5. Effective May 1, 2008, extend the 2% vacation trade-in for pension purposes to April 30, 2014 for retirement on or before May 1, 2017, with the understanding that the latest date for retirement is age 66.

6. Effective May 1, 2008, increase the hourly rate for Housekeepers by 3%. The Committee will review the entire salary structure and consider incorporating Housekeepers into the USG scale some time during the next year (Janitors have already moved into this scale). If a salary adjustment is necessary it will be done at that time.

The Committee will continue to deliberate over the next several months on how best to use the funds allocated to the discontinued Special Recognition Award Program. Once it has identified principles to guide the program, staff consultation will be sought.

Rationale:
Having considered a number of items, including 2008 salary increases for various local and university employers, vacation entitlements at similar institutions, the UW average compa ratio and the number of individuals at or above target, and the Memorandum of Salary Settlement between the University and the Faculty, the Committee believes that the recommendations above reflect a balanced and competitive settlement for UW staff.

Recommendations 1 and 2 are the results of deliberations aimed at providing staff with an amount of money equitable to the market adjustment provided for in the Faculty settlement (i.e., 0.7% over a two-year period). Given the differences between the faculty and staff salary systems, the Committee had to find another way to provide staff with an equitable additional increase rather than providing a fixed amount of money, as doing so would disrupt the salary system and likely be clawed back in future years for individuals who are at or above their job value/mid-point.

The proposal to adjust the mid-points (job values) of the ranges by 2% and 1.5% in 2008 and 2009, respectively, will deliver an additional increase to all staff that is equitable with the market adjustment provided for in the faculty settlement. It will not be the same for all staff but will be commensurate with their position in the range, and their performance rating.

Information sessions on the salary system and settlement will be held on Tuesday, April 15 and Wednesday, April 23, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., in Arts Lecture Hall room 113.

Back to top

Here comes the sun, and other healthy things

Spring is finally here, with a promise of warm days (as above) to come. Frank Seglenieks, co-ordinator of the UW Weather Station, says he’s had an earful about the long, hard, and cold winter we just left behind. He agrees it was long: “snow on the ground since late November and it is going to be with us for a while longer,” and hard, with record snowfall, but “the winter was actually a degree warmer than average.” It was indeed wet, with precipitation of 268.9 mm compared to the average of 189.3 mm: the highest total precipitation (which includes both snow and rain) for the winter since 1973-74. The wettest day was January 9, with 33.2 mm of mostly rain; the warmest day January 8, at 13.3 °C; the coldest day March 10, at -23.4 °C. The full report is on the weather station’s webpage.

On Tuesday, UW Health Services is holding its annual Passport to Health event, 11:30 to 1:30, in the Student Life Centre Great Hall. Travel through each of the Passport to Health stations for information and feedback regarding your blood pressure, nutrition, back care, stress, lung health, and more.

If you ever wondered what it’s like to drive drunk but don’t plan to try it yourself, here’s a chance to share the experience safely. UW Health Services and Waterloo Regional Police Services present the Matrix Impaired Driving Simulator on Thursday, March 27, 11 to 2, at the Student Life Centre. The software for this demonstration was created a few years ago by fourth-year electrical and computer engineering students at UW.

Social InnovationGeneration@Waterloo welcomes Lance Gunderson, speaking on “Resilience of People, Ecosystems and Societies; a multidisciplinary perspective,” on Thursday, March 27 at 5:30 p.m., in the Environmental Studies I courtyard. The founding chair of environmental studies at Emory University, Gunderson has held top positions in the Resilience Network and the Resilience Alliance, chaired the National Academy of Sciences, and served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Ecological Impacts of Road Density. RSVP to cmombour@uwaterloo.ca.

Back to top

Students who strive, learn, and share

The Undergraduate Nanotechnology Conference held at the University of Toronto on March 8 was a great success for UW nanotechnology engineering students Sarvesh Varma (third year) and Shrey Sindhwani (second year), who finished second and third in the poster competition, from a pool of about 200 delegates from Ontario universities. Varma’s poster, “Plasmonic Nano-Biosensors Based on Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy,” presented his co-op term research done with chemistry professors Peter Norton and François Lagugné-Labarthet at Western. “In a nutshell, this research is focused on developing novel nano-biosensors that would be able to detect and identify biomolecules, cells or toxins in lab-on-a-chip devices,” Varma says. Sindhwani’s poster, “Diversified Zinc Oxide Nanostructures on Conducting Glass and Plastic Substrates using Electrodeposition Technique,” documents co-op term work done at WATLab under UW chemistry professors Tong Leung and Debabrata Pradhan.

The annual Systems Design Engineering Project Symposium takes place in the Davis Centre foyer Tuesday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Showcased projects from third- and fourth-year systems design engineering students include designs for amusement park rides, robotic fish, autonomous helicopters, and virtual reality systems for use while shopping. For more information, contact course professors Daniel Stashuk (ext 32982) or Stephen Birkett (ext 33792), or Andrew Lee, fourth-year student exhibition co-organizer (519-998-2558).

German exchange students are making a presentation on exchanges with Germany – specifically about the universities of Braunschweig, Hamburg-Harburg, and Karlsruhe — on Tuesday, March 25, at 11.30 a.m. in Davis Centre room 1304. All first- and second-year engineering students are welcome. Former Canadian exchange students will be present.

The Student Life Office invites full-time grad or undergrad students to become Warrior Weekends Directors for the spring or fall 2008 terms. Directors are responsible for helping to plan, run, and publicize monthly Warrior Weekend events, recruit volunteers, and more. Information is online: please submit resumes by Thursday, March 27, to ceduis@uwaterloo.ca.

This note from the Department of Housing and Residences: “We are currently accepting Don applications for the fall 2008 and winter 2009 academic terms until Friday, April 4 at 12 p.m. If you are interested in this great opportunity, please visit http://www.housing.uwaterloo.ca for more information on the position and how to apply! If you have any questions please direct them to Phil Legate, Residence Life Program Assistant, at reslife@uwaterloo.ca, or 519-888-4567, ext. 36202.”

This Friday and Saturday, March 28-29, a team of MBET students will be finalists in the IBK Capital - Ivey Business Plan Competition at the University of Western Ontario in London. Christopher Chiu, Athena D'Amato, Timothy Li, John Ling, Steven Pulver, and Jasmine Wong will present SparkMedia, a technology that, Wong says, “will allow telecommunication companies to deliver lucrative IPTV services to an unlimited number of television sets and mobile devices without compromising video quality — eliminating bandwidth constraints and lowering capital costs.” The UW students will present their business plan in competition with teams from Windsor, Simon Fraser, Queen's, and the Ivey School of Business, with a total of $40,000 in prizes to be won. Winners will represent Canada at the Global MOOT Business Plan Competition — the world's largest student business plan competition, held annually at the University of Texas.

Finally, updating a note in Thursday’s Daily Bulletin: In the final round of CBC-TV’s “Next Great Prime Minister” contest, which aired yesterday at 7 p.m., the winner was Alika Lafontaine. Pam Hrick came second, and Kevin Royal, president of the UW Federation of Students, came third. Full analysis is on the show’s webpage.

CPA Staff

Back to top