Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE) Standing Committees meet at least twice a year in Vancouver, normally in the fall and spring. Here are last fall's committee reports from our LFA reps.
Education Policy Committee (EPC) - by Angel Chen
The Education Policy Committee (EPC) met in Vancouver November 22-23. Three main topics were raised during the first meeting: examining how international education (IE) is folded into institutional policies for all FPSE locals, identifying new and emerging education policy issues, and developing best practices and strategies to strengthen and enshrine collegial governance. The major focus is IE policies affecting instructor workload: most notably, policies on the enrolment and linguistic needs of international students and the provision of supports for faculty. On Day 2 we had a guest speaker, Minako Kikuchi, an international student advisor from Douglas College, who discussed Douglas’s recruitment plans, IE programs, and consultations with IE students.
The EPC passed a motion urging FPSE to lobby the provincial government to collect and publish information regarding internationalization (e.g., on revenues derived from IE, demographics, and the pass and failure rates of IE students). At the EPC’s next meeting (March 6-7), locals will compare notes on collegial governance provisions included in their collective agreements.
Non-Regular Faculty Committee - Niall Christie
The Non-Regular Faculty Committee (NRFC) held its Fall meeting September 13-14. The NRFC’s primary focus at present is the possibility of eliminating secondary scales in the current bargaining round. An attempt to hive this issue off and deal with it separately did not succeed, so it is being rolled into the main bargaining process. One thing that I found striking in discussions around the table was that there seems to be more solidarity among regular (RF) and non-regular (NRF) faculty than there used to be. This is a very encouraging development and bodes well for NRF in this round of bargaining.
On Wednesday, October 9th, as part of Fair Employment Week, I hosted a table in A Building Foyer, drawing attention to the plight of sessionals and collecting signatures on a pledge of support, which was then sent to CAUT to assist with their campaigning on this issue. We handed out 500 leaflets and collected a total of 143 signatures, twenty more than last year, testifying to the fact that an increasing number of Langara faculty, staff, and students will not stand idly by while faculty at other institutions are exploited by unscrupulous administrations. Thanks to Anne Toews and Stephen Phillips for helping to staff the table, and to the LFA for providing financial and moral support.
Pension Advisory Committee (PAC) - Bryan Breguet
The PAC meeting of November 15-16 was largely concerned with housekeeping matters. The trustees presented some numbers regarding the financial performance of the plan. As of June 30, 2019, the 1-year rate of return (net of fees) was 6.4%. That compares favourably to the benchmark of 5.7%. The 5-year return was 7.9% while the 10-year one was 9%. As a reminder, the fund is actuarily funded as long as it gets 6.25% annually on average. The plan is currently overfunded and the inflation adjustment account is healthy.
The transition to retirement sub-committee presented some data regarding the numbers of members by age group. While the proportion of members 65+ has increased rapidly in recent years, this trend seems to have stabilized and some growth in other age groups has been observed.
A first, though incomplete, draft of the report on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) was presented with the full report expected soon. While many members expressed a desire for more socially responsible investment, this is a complex matter over which the trustees have limited power. The report, nonetheless, makes for interesting reading.
Members should know that the Association of BC College Pension Plan Retirees is offering a workshop on preparing for the transition to retirement. Such workshops can usually be scheduled at the same time as a presentation from the College Pension Plan. Perhaps the LFA could consider convening such a workshop.
Status of Women Committee - Melissa Roberts
The FPSE Status of Women committee met October 18-19 in Vancouver. We had a very productive two days of meetings. Issues discussed included:
- conducting a province-wide data collection of women faculty in post-secondary
- balancing paid duties with unpaid service work and emotional labour that women often find themselves doing
- the provision of free menses products on campus for both faculty/staff and students
- progress made on previous resolutions from the AGM and Presidents’ Council
- planning for the spring SWC meeting and the 2020 AGM
- information sharing for December 6th events around the province
- activity involving union fundamentals - getting to know your collective agreement and how to read and interpret them
Looking forward to the spring session!
Workplace Health, Safety and Environment (WHSEC) - Valerie Lloyd
The Fall meeting of the Workplace Health, Safety and Environment Committee (WHSEC) was held in Vancouver September 27-28. It was attended by representatives of 14 other locals while written reports were received from representatives of 4 institutions who were unable to attend.
Three noteworthy motions were adopted. The first recommends to Presidents’ Council that the ad hoc climatic emergency committee FPSE is to establish be restructured as a standing committee with representation from all the locals. The second expresses concern about the lack of ergonomic support provided to employees and called on Presidents’ Council to write a letter to the Workers’ Compensation Board recommending, among other things, more ergonomic training for WCB officers, further education for managers and local members, and better enforcement of ergonomic regulations. Finally, the WHSEC urged local and provincial bargaining teams to consider a number of issues in the current round of bargaining, including the orientation of new employees on occupational health and safety matters; securing release time for employees participating in joint occupational health and safety committees; factoring e-mail, communication, and learning management systems into the calculation of workload; and establishing minimum levels of coverage under employee assistance plans, together with improved transparency about such coverage.