Faculty at Capilano University have agreed to suspend their strike action so students can take their final exams and mediation can be given a try.
Capilano University announced the development at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 13, noting that final exams would begin for students on April 16 and run until April 24 on a revised schedule.
The Capilano University Faculty Association (CFA) said that mediation will begin “shortly.”
“The outcome will be a report that is submitted to the CFA and University Board for ratification,” a press release from the CFA stated. “If the agreement is not ratified, the CFA and the University will resume negotiations and the CFA will be in a position to resume job action.”
That job action, if resumed, should not impact the revised final exam schedule this year, according to Richard Gale, VP Academic and Provost with Capilano University.
“The mediation is scheduled to run until really, practically the end of June. While parties are in mediation there can be no strike,” Gale said. “So I suppose there is a very minor possibility that mediation will break down but we’re not even going to be going into mediation with the selected mediator until the end of this month anyway, so I don’t believe there’s any risk whatsoever that this exam period is going to be impacted again.”
Mediator Mark Brown has been retained for the mediation process. He will have until June 29, 2015 to issue his non-binding recommendations to both sides.
A new contract is expected to span five years (from 2014 to 2019) and although both sides have agreed to a government mandated 5.5 per cent wage increase, three main issues remain a concern for the CFA including: job security and regularization, having a democratic workplace and fair compensation and equity.
Capilano University has said it has addressed some of those issues however, it “cannot agree to proposals outside of the financial mandate, such as those that result in increased regularization where there is no ongoing funding,” or to CFA proposals “that restrain the University Board from carrying out its budget related responsibilities.”
