Salary bonuses are becoming widespread among Quebec university professors. More than 3,570 of them benefited from it in 2017-2018, for a total sum of $54 million. That year, the base salary bonus represented 4.7% of the payroll of the teaching staff of Quebec universities.
These data are taken of one study published in October 2018 by the Quebec Federation of University Professors (FQPPU), which brings together 8,000 members in 18 institutions. The document identifies four main types of salary bonuses paid to faculty—for program leadership; for performance; for a research chair or to compensate for high salaries in a job field.
McGill University professors captured the lion’s share (46%) of these financial benefits, with bonuses totaling $25 million awarded to 1,448 professors. The University of Montreal came in second place, with 20% of the bonuses paid to Quebec professors. The 16 other Quebec universities shared the last third of the salary bonuses (but two establishments, HEC Montreal and UQAM, had not provided their data to the FQPPU).
The FQPPU is delighted with this financial recognition of the work accomplished by its members, but would like more transparency and fairness in the allocation of salary bonuses. Professors in disciplines with high salaries outside academia—such as law, medicine, engineering, or finance—enjoy enviable salary bonuses, which can exceed $50,000 per year, while professors in subjects such as literature, the human sciences or the arts, for example, often have to make do with the salaries provided for in collective agreements.
Campus Divisions
These inequities are creating tension on campuses, reported The duty friday. A 25% bonus granted for two decades to professors of the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal (UdeM) divides the university community.
UdeM has replaced these bonuses — and those of all of its professors — with a new directive creating performance and attraction bonuses allocated transparently and independently.
The new directive came into effect in June 2020, but a grievance arbitrator ruled last week in favor of UdeM law professors: the establishment’s management could not eliminate these 25% bonuses without consultation. Arbitrator Jean-Guy Ménard invites the two parties to determine together the future of these salary bonuses.
The General Union of Professors and Professors of the University of Montreal (SGPUM) “is delighted with this decision, which clearly reminds the employer that it cannot unilaterally modify the working conditions of the teaching staff”, indicated to the To have to Fasal Kanouté, president of the union.
This arbitration decision “creates an important precedent for all teachers and respect for their rights. The SGPUM hopes that the employer will take note of this and that the latter will collaborate with the SGPUM, both for the implementation of this decision and for the files where the SGPUM asks to be truly recognized as a contact person to ensure compliance with working conditions. and a healthy environment for its members,” she added.
For its part, the management of UdeM is studying the judgment before deciding whether it will challenge it in Superior Court.
Beware of the “boys’ club”
The Federation representing the 8,000 Quebec university professors says it would like the allocation of bonuses to be done collectively to avoid individual agreements granted to those who speak the loudest or to members of the ” boys’ club “.
“There is a gender imbalance, particularly in the allocation of salaries and management responsibilities,” notes the FQPPU study.
Female students are in the majority in several university programs, but women remain a minority in the teaching staff, notes the FQPPU. Women represent just over a third of professors (38%) in Quebec universities. They are even less likely to hold a full professor position, i.e. 12.4% of the teaching body in 2016-2017.
In Quebec, the proportion of women with an annual salary of $150,000 or more was almost 3.5 times lower than that of men (8.1% of the teaching body for men, compared to 2.3% for women in 2016-2017), underlines the FQPPU.