FARDP Negotiations Update – September 2025
FARDP Negotiations updates for September 2025:
September 15, 2025
Bargaining returned on Friday September 12th. RDP provided a counter to the proposal FARDP provided in May. Their new proposal contains similar workloads to previous proposals with three streams – teaching focus, teaching and service, and a research focus stream. The workload would decrease for Trades, be largely the same for Nursing (if you do a combination of clinical and theory), but increase for many faculty in other programs. RDP is also proposing a different amount of time for Professional Development and uninterrupted Vacation time (total Vacation is still the same), depending on your stream. While FARDP appreciates that RDP is no longer asking for all faculty to have less time for PD and uninterrupted Vacation time, FARDP does object to the creation of second class faculty. FARDP will not agree to faculty being forced into a stream that will then give them less than their colleagues without getting some other benefit in lieu. There needs to be an exchange, you teach more in exchange for less of something else (like committee work). Not less PD and Vacation.
RDP still proposes a cut in PD funds from the current level arguing that faculty don’t use all of the PD fund currently. They did increase Overload Pay from their previous proposal, they limited class time to a 5 day work week, and increased the health spending account to $750 (which is what AUPE and Exempt have currently). For more details, please see the post behind the log in.
On September 26th, FARDP will provide a counter proposal.
September 29, 2025
On Friday September 26th, the FARDP bargaining team provided a counter proposal to RDP. This proposal included changing the workload for academic faculty to reflect the current workloads. Previous versions had workloads decreasing for this group. The proposal included a 405 workload for certificate and diploma programs and a 382.5 workload for baccalaureate. While this proposal will reduce workloads for some programs, it stands by our commitment to not have anyone’s workload go up. At the same time we are trying to show movement and find compromise with RDP, when possible, so that we can get an agreement that everyone endorses. As such, the FARDP proposal moved from a single line salary grid back to the traditional grid format. We still want Part Time on the Full Time grid. We still want to consolidate the Journey-person (F) and Baccalaureate (D) columns on the grid (using the higher numbers of the two columns). RDP has agreed to both priorities, which is fantastic. While the FARDP proposal restores the original grid, it does add 4 more rows to the grid. We continue to recognize the need for salary increases (beyond the 12%) to be competitive with other institutions and industry.
On October 3rd, RDP will provide a counter proposal.