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YUFA / Employer Retirement Seminar Held on 26 April 2007

by Louise Ripley, Communications Officer

20 June 07 – As professors and librarians at York University envision the ending of mandatory retirement in Ontario, we face a whole new conceptualization of retirement, one that resolves some issues that beleaguered us before but raises new issues that need to be contemplated. We are now accustomed to thinking of working at York until we are 65: teaching, doing research, and contributing service toward the running of the University, and then, in our retirement, perhaps continuing to do some teaching and possibly some graduate supervision, as well as our own research, at levels that suit our own desires and our health. In a new age of no mandatory retirement, we now can continue on as long as we like. There is literally no mandatory retirement date; we may teach, research, and do service for York until we are 71, or 81, or even 101.

At what age will you choose to stop working? What will it now mean for your continued work at the University? How will the Employer, accustomed to a set age at which it knows almost everyone will retire, plan for a future in which no one has to retire, ever? Will the Administration offer you any incentives to provide in writing a set date at which you will retire so it can plan for your replacement? How has the 2006-2009 Collective Agreement changed to meet the law, and how will the current language be interpreted to cover complex questions related to retirement?

YUFA and the Employer are working together to answer these questions and to smooth the path to retirement. Part of that effort included a joint seminar hosted on 26 April 2007, attended by around 80 people and presented by Barry Miller, Executive Director, Employee Relations and Arthur Hilliker, YUFA President. What follows are notes from YUFA's Communications Officer taken at the meeting.

PRESENTATION

Barry Miller, Executive Director, Employee Relations

Barry Miller spoke to the fact that retirement is different now. Most important, faculty / librarians can continue full-time employment, with benefits and entitlements, past age 65. Most major changes center around Irrevocable Reduced Load and Post-Retirement Teaching. An important point to note is that the concept of Normal Retirement Date still continues in our Collective Agreement. Retirement is not mandatory but there is still a date at which one would “normally” retire, and some provisions are tied to this date. At York University, that date is defined as the 1 July next following or coincident with one’s 65th birthday.

Barry Miller’s talk covered general retirement provisions in five major areas. The general retirement provisions continue as before, with the same support services that have been there with respect to retirement, including such entitlements as pre-retirement counselling, the titles of Professor Emeritus(a) and / or Senior Scholar, continuing as a member of the community, and maintaining library, athletic, and email privileges.

Post-Retirement Teaching
Normal Retirement Date and Sabbaticals
Early Retirement
Irrevocable Reduced Load
Notice of Intent to Retire

Post-Retirement Teaching

Post-Retirement Teaching has changed in the new climate of the end of mandatory retirement. Where previously, faculty were entitled to teach up to 8 full-course equivalents, 5 at an enhanced rate and 3 at the CUPE 3903 rate, now faculty are entitled to teach up to 5 full-course equivalents, all at the enriched rate of $16,238 (subject to availability, as in previous Collective Agreements). The actual maximum number available is tied to the age at retirement: retiring up to the age of 67, you can teach up to 5 full-course equivalents; retiring at age 68-69, you can teach up to 4 full-course equivalents; and retiring at age 70, you can teach up to 3 full-course equivalents. All courses must be taught within 6 years of retiring.

Normal Retirement Date and Sabbaticals

If you continue full-time after 65, sabbaticals and sabbatical credits continue the same as before 65.

However, questions arose at the meeting regarding the implications of taking the ‘last’ sabbatical provisions outlined in Article 14.05. This Article continues, as previously, to provide several advantageous provisions prior to Normal Retirement Date, including Employer and employee top-ups to the Pension Plan contributions, and the opportunity for a six-month sabbatical at 80% if you have accumulated 3-5 years’ sabbatical credit. To address these questions, the Association and the Employer will enter into discussions about the implementations of taking these provisions in a post-mandatory retirement environment.

Early Retirement

Retirement options include the possibility of a severance payment, before or after Normal Retirement Date, and a continuing incentive for early retirement before your Normal Retirement Date.

Article 14.09(c) prescribes the financial assistance available for those who retire between the ages of 60 and 64. This formula remains the same as that available since the 1996-1999 Collective Agreement. Members who retire five years prior to their Normal Retirement Date will receive 100% of the average salary of those at the same age in the appropriate Professorial or Alternate Stream. If the average salary of a 60-year-old member is $105,000, a retiring 60-year-old member would receive $105,000 as severance pay. Retiring four years before your Normal Retirement Date, you would receive 80% of that; three years before, 60%; two years, before 40%; one year before, 20%.

Irrevocable Reduced Load (IRL)

The existing opportunity for selecting Irrevocable Reduced Load before retirement has been modified in the new Collective Agreement. For any faculty / librarian member who wishes to give notice of intent to retire at a date a maximum of 10 years in the future (but not later than the year in which you are in mandatory receipt of pension, currently 69*). If you want the full 10 years of IRL, you must elect to change your status no later than age 59.

Note that sabbatical is tied to the amount you work under your Reduced Load. If you are on a load of say 50%, you accrue sabbatical credit at 50%; if, for example, you work 6 years at 50% load, you accrue 3 years of sabbatical credit.

If this new provision does not work for you, there is the possibility of making individual arrangements with your Dean / Principal / University Librarian. There is also Article 18.25 whereby employees may apply to their Dean / Principal / University Librarian for Reduced Load. (Note: this Article does NOT carry the entitlement of an Employer top-up to one’s pension.)

* Being in mandatory receipt of pension is a matter of federal legislation. You must start receiving your pension by the end of the calendar year in which you turn 69. There is currently a bill being considered to change this to 71, but it has not yet been enacted. Being in mandatory receipt of pension does not mean that you must retire. You can continue to work full-time and receive a paycheque but you must receive your pension from the government and the York University Plan.

Notice of Intent to Retire

The new Collective Agreement requires that employees provide 9 months’ notice of intention to retire. This may be waived by the Dean / Principal / University Librarian. If you are at all in doubt, it is best to check with the Administration.

Arthur Hilliker, YUFA President

Regarding Article 14.09 sections a) and b), you need to know that you can negotiate your own severance package, in “without prejudice” agreements. Also, with the required 9 months’ notice, you can negotiate a reduced length of notice; the Employer, of course has to agree. Sometimes there can be emotional clashes in issues as important as this, and it can help to have a dispassionate third party who will meet with the faculty member and the Employer. Remember too that your Chair is a YUFA member, not a member of the Administration. Realize too that you may negotiate a particular deal for yourself, but that does not mean that others will necessarily get the same deal. This is not always the union’s first choice, but in some circumstances it may be the best that can be achieved.

Scott Forsyth, 2006-07 Bargaining Team Chief Negotiator

Scott spoke to the fact that while there are obviously complex changes in Article 14, there is also considerable continuity in the new environment where we have the right to continue working past 65. Members’ individual queries about their own situations will help us all begin to understand this new environment.

QUESTIONS FROM THOSE ATTENDING

Several questions focused on Article 14.05 and the provisions for ‘last’ sabbaticals just before Normal Retirement Date. The parties will be discussing how this Article will be implemented with the end to mandatory retirement and members will receive information about this as soon as possible.

Whom does one notify when one is preparing to retire?

Barry Miller: You should notify your Dean / Principal / University Librarian; if you elect to be a Senior Scholar, you also need to notify the Vice President Academic.

Arthur Hilliker: You should copy your Chair too, for academic planning purposes.

What about the recent letter that the Employer sent out, waiving the 9 month notification period?

Barry Miller: A letter was sent recently making it clear that, given how long negotiations took, those preparing now for retirement could not possibly comply with the 9-month notice period, so that has been waived for this year.

If you were on Irrevocable Reduced Load prior to the new Collective Agreement, can you further reduce your load?

Barry Miller: Yes. Loads can be between 20% to 80%. You may reduce your load to not lower than 20%. You cannot increase your load, but it can remain flat. You can do this at any time with 9 months’ notice.

If you are on Irrevocable Reduced Load, grandparented, can you continue past the age of 69?

Barry Miller: If you are on IRL for low pension, under Article 14.01 (b) of the 2003-2006 Collective Agreement, you will have a one-time-only opportunity to return to full-time load, with no restrictions. If you do not elect to do this, you can continue to age 69, at which point you must retire.

If we are on Irrevocable Reduced Load for low pension, what do we do to return to full load?

Barry Miller: People in that situation will receive a letter which will ask them to check off 1 of 2 choices on the form and send it back to us.

The flexibility in phasing into retirement has been reduced. There used to also be 3 years Revocable Reduced Load and you could go both up and down. Where did the pressure to give up that flexibility come from?

Barry Miller: We are trying to have provisions that make sense in a post-mandatory retirement world. Article 18.25 still offers Revocable Reduced Load, although without provisions entitling one to an Employer topped-up pension.

Arthur Hilliker: Members should keep in mind that we now have the flexibility to continue full-time past 65 and IRL can now continue past 65, with the Employer’s top-ups to pension, to 69.

What do we gain in place of flexibility?

Barry Miller: Money. With Revocable Reduced Load, you don’t get the top-up; with Irrevocable Reduced Load, you get the Employer top-up.

WHEN PLANNING YOUR RETIREMENT, TALK TO: