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President's letter to the UW community, 19 October 1995

Wednesday, October 25, 1995

About premiums and subsidies

A memo came out the other day from Neil Murray of UW's human resources department, setting out the amounts UW will pay to staff for various expenses related to work. Here's what he said:

After some recent inquiries, I thought it appropriate to confirm the following information.

The recommended subsidy for safety shoes/boots is $55.00 per year if required by the nature of the job.
The recommended subsidy for safety glasses is $65.00 every two years -- $80.00 for bifocals if required by the nature of the job.
The recommended shift premium is 55 cents per hour for any hours worked between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The recommended meal allowance is $7.50.
If you have any further questions, please contact your Staff Relations Coordinator in Human Resources.

What's happening across Canada

Faculty members at Queen's University have voted in favour of union certification. Results of the vote, conducted last month, were made public Monday. Members of the Queen's University Faculty Association voted 57 per cent in favour of certification. That leaves Toronto, Waterloo and Western as the major Ontario universities where professors are not unionized.

The faculty strike at the University of Manitoba is now a week old. U of M authorities are making announcements to students in a tone that suggests a long strike can be expected:

The university is looking at the academic implications of the strike and is reviewing possible alternatives. How the strike will affect you will vary depending on the program you are in, your year in the course, and the extent to which your courses have been interrupted. Options, which may include an extension to the term, are being considered. This information will become available to you from your faculty or school and will be widely publicized.

The major issue is a proposed revision to the faculty contract that would make it easier for the university to close programs and eliminate professors' jobs for financial reasons.

Faculty at New Brunswick's Mount Allison University have voted to authorize a strike. Mount A has already endured one of Canada's few faculty strikes, and tense relationships continue there.

All the way from Australia

Representatives from Griffith University will be at UW today to speak about their faculty of education program, says Kerry Mahoney of the career resource centre. The talk starts at 10:30 in Needles Hall room 1020.

Benefits on the agenda

UW's board of governors is scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon. Among matters on the agenda will be changes to the health benefit plan for faculty and staff. As put forward earlier this year, the idea is to adopt "co-insurance" for health costs such as prescription drugs. Rather than paying the first $43 or $86 of annual costs and then seeing the insurance plan pay the rest, an individual would pay 20 per cent of all eligible costs and the insurance plan 80 per cent. There is an annual limit on how much an individual would pay ($100 single, $200 family).

Other changes involve the coverage for "paramedical services", semi-private hospital rooms, out-of-Canada insurance and other details. A "pay-direct card" is to be introduced in place of the current paper forms used to collect reimbursement for prescriptions.

United Way surges forward

As today's Gazette notes, the on-campus United Way campaign has reached 58 per cent of its $160,000 goal. Latest word is that givings have hit $85,326 from 474 people -- out of 3,156 potential donors.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca

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