First Contract for Sessional Lecturers at Memorial

The Public Service Alliance of Canada and its directly-chartered Local, which represents sessional lecturers teaching two or fewer courses per semester, signed their first Collective Agreement with Memorial University on March 9, 2009.

"We are delighted to have achieved a first contract with Memorial University that addresses many of the critical needs of our members," said Jeannie Baldwin, PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the Atlantic.

The new agreement contains significant gains for Per-course Instructors, who as non-union workers had experienced only one pay increase during the previous 18 years. Wages rise by 8 per cent retroactive to September 1, 2008 with increases of 4 per cent, 4 per cent and 4 per cent in each of the next three years.

Other important achievements include seniority provisions and a hiring process that will begin to deal with the chronic job insecurity faced by these flexible academic workers. That language represents an acknowledgement that a Per-course Instructor's relationship to the University is not strictly limited to the particular semester in which she or he is employed.

Other gains include leave provisions and excellent language dealing with academic freedom, intellectual property rights, outside activities, and no discrimination/no harassment provisions.