Carleton administration is paying an emergency sum of $100,000 towards depleted healthcare funding for over 2,000 teaching, research and student assistants unionized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4600.
The Employee Assistance Fund (EAF) covering benefit claims—including dental, vision, physiotherapy, chiropractic, emergency loans, and childcare for undergraduate or graduate assistants—was completely exhausted Friday, as previously reported by the Charlatan.
“At this time, all benefits are operating as normal,” reads an email sent to union members Wednesday following several days of negotiations.
Carleton and CUPE 4600 agreed to an offer of $100,000 and the hiring of a third-party benefits consultant, “which we find reasonable for the time being for our members,” said the union’s business agent and organizer Dan Sawyer in an interview.
After funds were nearly depleted just 15 days since they were made available, the university offered a similar emergency sum of $100,000 to the union on Sept. 30, but tied it to assistants’ yearly one per cent wage increase, according to obtained internal emails.
Carleton did not want to confirm or deny that offer, which was rejected by the union per an unanimous general assembly vote of its membership in October.
“There appears to be no language that shows there are ties like that in this offer with wages and that’s why we accepted it,” said Sawyer.
According to previous coverage by the Charlatan, this is the second time the university has paid an emergency contribution towards the EAF in 2019. In February, Carleton paid $78,000 to reactivate depleted healthcare funding after coverage was suspended for over a week.
“We’re hoping that by having this consultant hired by a committee comprising of the employer and the union, we can resolve issues like this moving forward,” said Sawyer.
There is no timeline for when exactly a consultant will be hired, but Sawyer said he hopes a hiring committee “can convene some time within the next two weeks, so that we can get a consultant’s report to assess our next steps as soon as possible.”
“Negotiations and discussions with the union will be ongoing over the coming months and we look forward to signing a renewed collective agreement,” said Carleton’s media relations officer Steven Reid in a statement to the Charlatan.
“The university is pleased to have signed a memorandum of agreement.”
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File photo.
