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Certified under the Ontario Labour Relations Act in 1975, CUASA is the oldest academic staff union in Ontario. The principal purposes of the Association are to promote the well-being of the academic community, to defend academic freedom and to promote the collective and individual interests of its members, as well as to maintain the quality and integrity of the University as an academic institution. The union and the employer work together using a problem solving approach to issues arising from terms and conditions of employment. We are proud of our working relationship and are pleased to welcome you to Carleton University.

Negotiating your starting salary:

• Your negotiation for a starting salary is vitally important. The starting salary you negotiate will determine your career earnings and your final pension. Do not expect to renegotiate your salary.
• You have complete freedom to negotiate your starting salary at any amount above stipulated lower limits.
• While salary floors are posted on the CUASA web site, floors provide little information with respect to negotiating an appropriate starting salary.
• There is no firm "hiring" rate.
• Management will make a salary offer based on parameters such as market factors, budgetary constraints and whether there are other suitable candidates available.
• A salary offer denotes the point at which you start your negotiations for your entry salary.
• With the sole exception of conversion of a faculty term appointment to tenure track, you do not get to renegotiate your salary. This means that being tenured or promoted will not give you the right to negotiate a new salary. Once you are hired, you become a member of the bargaining unit and the union has exclusive bargaining rights from that point forward.
• You may also need to negotiate the employer's contribution to relocation costs.

You are strongly encouraged to contact CUASA  for confidential advice on your salary negotiations.

CUASA assistance

CUASA compares salaries across the bargaining unit using three charts (faculty, instructors, and professional librarians) from Appendix E: Salary Rationalisation of the Collective Agreement

The basis for each chart is "years since first degree".   This basis is used to simplify salary comparisons.

The faculty chart assumes that you were hired 8 years after completing your B.A., B.Sc. B.Eng, etc. at the Assistant Professor floor with a standard career (no denial of career development increments for poor performance, no adjustments through salary rationalisation for market differentials, special merit or alternate offer of employment).

Using these assumptions, we determine your predicted salary. Next, we look at the department/school you are being hired into, to determine whether it is an area with market differentials (colleagues who are positive against their predicted salaries) or one where a negative market applies (colleagues mainly negative against predicted salaries, usually because of oversupply in the market or poor initial negotiations).

Using this guide we can make suggestions for your salary negotiation should you be the selected candidate. You are free to ignore these suggestions and negotiate whatever you can, provided it is not below the minimum specified.

                 Average Starting Salaries at Carleton                                                                Negotiating a First Academic Job
                  for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009                                                                   helpful articles

Benefits:

• A comprehensive set of benefits has been negotiated which include, dental, extended health care (out-of-province health care; drugs, etc.), life insurance and long term disability insurance (see Benefits Booklet or Benefits at a glance).

• Professional Expense Reimbursement for expenses related to your duties.     $1200 (2009-10)

• Free tuition for yourself, your spouse and your dependents under 26 years of age.

• Comprehensive parental leave (maternity, paternity, adoption) benefits

• Sabbaticals are a right at Carleton.
  • Those who have taught elsewhere may be eligible for up to 2 years credit towards sabbatical [Article 21.1(f)]. Make sure any such credit is captured in your letter of appointment.
  • Remuneration for the first sabbatical in your academic career is 100% of nominal salary whether the sabbatical a full year or a half year in length. Thereafter, sabbatical stipends are at 80% for a full year (after 6 years of service) and 70% for a half year (after 3 years of service) [Article 21.3(a)].

Benefits provided by CUASA:

• Housing listings and other information which might be of interest to those relocating to Ottawa may also be found on this web site.

• CUASA sponsors an Insurance Agent who provides group rates on auto/home insurance; the agent, Bob Jones, is in the CUASA office on Tuesdays 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
  phone: 613-520-5608
  email: jones471@sympatico.ca

Once you have been hired, you are required by law to pay union dues. You have a choice about joining CUASA and participating in the democratic processes of the Association.
Whether you join or not, CUASA represents you.