YUFA
Retirement
YUFA President Statement to YUFA
Members on Mandatory Retirement
18 Oct 04 – The
Ontario Government proposes to eliminate mandatory retirement by amendment
to the Ontario Human Rights Code. YUFA has always supported the
elimination of mandatory retirement. Our last statement outlining our
position was a
letter
sent by YUFA President Penni Stewart to the Ontario Human Rights
Commission.
One concern is that
it may be argued that universities be exempted from the ending of
mandatory retirement (i.e., universities could negotiate collective agreements with their
faculty associations which do allow for mandatory retirement.) There are four
reasons to oppose such an exemption.
First, if the ending
of mandatory retirement becomes a human right embedded within the Ontario
Human Rights Code it would be completely unfair to exclude university
faculty members. This would deny them a human right given to all other
Ontarians. I am reminded of a quotation from George Orwell’s Animal
Farm, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others.”
Second, university
faculty members are able to continue effective employment beyond age 65.
For supporting documentation see www.ocufa.on.ca/retirement,
an Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA)
Website.
Third, although it
has been argued by some that ending mandatory retirement would impede the
progression of young Canadians into faculty ranks, the reality is that
there would likely be no such effect. It has been estimated that Ontario
Universities will be filling thousands of new faculty positions in the
near future, far beyond the pool of qualified Canadians. Indeed, ending
mandatory retirement will allow us to retain much needed productive
faculty members.
Fourth, although it
has been argued that ending mandatory retirement will result in highly
significant costs to the employer, the economic costs are relatively
small. Documentation of this point can be found at www.ocufa.on.ca/retirement.
Arthur J. Hilliker
President, York University Faculty Association