The Fight for Market Salary Parity
Introduction
Today, I’m writing about a very important, but complex issue regarding your salary compensation. My account might seem lengthy, so I wanted to let you know that I cover, down below, why the issue remains significant and what the APSA team and board are doing to resolve the matter in favour of increasing your salaries.
Please also see our infographic related to this issue in the APSA newsletter.
A Little Background
Over the years, we’ve let you know about the progress of the Joint Compensation Review Committee (JCRC), a committee that arbitrator Colin Taylor established in 2015 so that APSA and the University could “…consider and make recommendations towards the development and implementation of a total compensation package.” The committee was composed of APSA and University representatives.
In 2018, one of the key items that we agreed on was that we would conduct a joint market survey to compare APSA members' cash compensation to the external market. The cost of the survey, which was performed by Mercer, was also shared: the parties each paid 50% of the costs. Very unfortunately, as former APSA President David Agosti noted, we learned in 2019 that the University was acting less than jointly when it came to executing the 2018 market survey, and APSA took the matter to mediation/arbitration to preserve your salary interests.
While I won’t go into the details of what unfolded litigation-wise (again, please see our infographic in this newsletter), I wanted to speak about some unfortunate recent developments and what my team and our board are doing about it.
Recent Troubles
On March 5, 2025, and to our surprise, the University unilaterally declared that it was walking away from the JCRC. I wrote surprise just now, because the JCRC was getting some vital work done, including ensuring job descriptions (JDs) older than 2016 were being reviewed and revised; and also establishing a joint job evaluation appeal committee, should you disagree with how your JD was evaluated.
Yes, the litigated issues of the 2018 Market Survey were very delayed before arbitrator Bob Pekeles, and while APSA did on several recent occasions propose to self-meditate the troublesome market survey items with SFU (they rejected each request), we weren’t expecting the University to seemingly renege on its commitments per the Colin Taylor arbitration and the JCRC Mediation Agreement of 2020.
The University’s stepping away from the JCRC seemed to follow our presentation to the University of the likely retro pay owed to members like you, based on preliminary results of the 2018 Market Survey. We further noted to SFU that we’re well aware that it has budget woes and we would negotiate a reasonable way to give market lifts to APSA jobs most out of whack salary-wise with market comparators (i.e. a “worst first” strategy).
Unfortunately, the University also argued that there was no obligation on their part to provide market lifts due to the 2018 Market Survey. We noted to SFU that no modern, sophisticated employer undertakes a market survey with no intent to make market adjustments to affected salaries. That just doesn’t happen.
What is also ironic here is that the compensation beneficiaries of the 2018 Markey Survey so far have been APEX and PolyParty members. Unlike APSA, neither party paid a share of the 2018 Market Survey costs.
How We’re Advocating for Your Compensation Interests
Due to the lengthy delays with arbitrator Bob Pekeles, we asked him to recuse himself from the 2018 Market Survey issues, which he has now done. Our legal counsel is pursuing another arbitrator to adjudicate our outstanding issues with SFU. We have also requested to present the issues to the SFU Board of Governors at their meeting later in May; we are also considering further publicity to highlight the University’s actions.
Why the 2018 Market Survey Matters
While 2018 seems a long time ago, the retro pay for market adjustments that we say SFU could well owe you has been accumulating in the ensuing years. While there’s no guarantee those funds will be forthcoming from SFU, we want to see APSA members like you receive market lifts where appropriate. Again, two other SFU employee groups already received such salary lifts, and we strongly believe that you should, too.
Final Thoughts
The University’s representatives also argued that the 2018 Market Survey has been rendered moot by the University’s unilaterally undertaken 2023 Market Survey. While the University presented the results of the 2023 Market Survey to JCRC representatives earlier this spring, we have reserved our thoughts about the accuracy of the 2023 Market Survey until we’ve resolved the 2018 Market Survey issues. (Hint: curiously, there doesn’t appear to be any market lifts flowing from SFU’s 2023 salary survey either...).
We'll update you as soon as I know more. Take care as always.