A salary bonus of 25% paid since 2002 to professors at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal (UdeM), which aims to reflect the “market” of employment in this very lucrative field, is the subject of a legal battle. This type of bonus, very widespread in universities, negotiated on the sidelines of collective agreements, divides the teaching profession. Some evoke the presence of a malaise among the disciplines having less “market” value, in particular in human sciences or arts.
According to what The duty learned, law professors have just won a first round in this showdown against UdeM management. The establishment seeks to eliminate this system of bonuses described as opaque and unfair to teachers of other disciplines.
A grievance arbitrator has just limited the scope of a directive put in place by the university in 2020, which phased out the 25% bonus granted to law professors. This new policy created two categories of bonuses accessible to all UdeM professors, and not only to those with bargaining power for financial reasons.
The University of Montreal “could not unilaterally put an end to the bonus system applied since 2002 to professors of the Faculty of Law”, concluded arbitrator Jean-Guy Ménard in a decision dated January 16, 2023.
It orders UdeM to reimburse, with interest, the bonuses lost since June 2020 by the professors of the Faculty of Law. The new directive which governs the salary bonuses of the entire faculty of the establishment remains valid, but no longer applies, for the moment, to the Faculty of Law, specifies the arbitrator.
The Faculty of Law’s bonus system is not “perennial or even immutable”, but the new directive put in place by UdeM management cannot oppose this system, which has been in place for more than 20 years, judged the referee. “For the rest and for the future, this question becomes the business of the parties”, he specifies.
UdeM told the To have to not yet having decided whether or not to seek judicial review of the decision.
The “value” of a teacher
This story goes back to the year 2002. A professor from the Faculty of Law at UdeM had learned that one of his tax specialist colleagues enjoyed a much higher salary, even though they both had the same collective agreement. .
The law professors had investigated and found that their colleagues from a range of disciplines — such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and even finance — had negotiated bonuses, sometimes without the knowledge of the rest of the university community.
These bonuses are not “secret”, but they remain unknown on university campuses. They are negotiated in good and due form within the faculties, often outside the collective agreements. Other professors negotiate salary conditions on an individual basis.
Nobody wants to take someone else’s salary away, but our wish is that bonuses are not paid based on the ability to sell themselves
This compensation bonus aims to attract professors and retain them in areas where salaries are higher in private practice or in other universities, explains the decision of arbitrator Jean-Guy Ménard.
In 2002, the Faculty of Law introduced a bonus that increased the salaries of its professors by 25%. This measure has achieved its objectives, argue the teachers: “ [Le] deployment outside of certain teachers has been very significantly reduced, the emphasis, the interest and the investment of time and effort have been put on the career of a teacher”, they argued before the arbitrator.
A UdeM law professor at the top of the ladder confides that with the 25% bonus, he earns about $175,000 a year, but that he would double his salary working in private practice. He says he is staying for the “satisfaction of training the next generation and contributing to society”.
A divisive question
The distribution of salary bonuses “creates tensions between professors,” explains Michel Lacroix, interim president of the Quebec Federation of University Professors (FQPPU). Without commenting on the dispute between the Faculty of Law of UdeM and the management of the establishment, he underlines that the FQPPU generally wishes that the bonuses be distributed in an equitable and transparent manner.
“No one wants to take away someone else’s salary, but our wish is that bonuses are not paid based on the ability to sell themselves,” says Michel Lacroix.
The discussions within the FQPPU evoke a desire for collective bargaining of salary bonuses, an approach that would bring “more balance between colleagues”. This professor of literary studies at UQAM says with a smile that attraction or retention bonuses are “very rare in his field”.
Regardless of their teaching discipline, professors all have the same responsibility towards their students, their institution and their society, he argues.
A big cleaning
UdeM management has cleaned up the bonuses available to its 1,450 professors in 2020, with the aim of putting an end to inequities between disciplines. The university now offers “outstanding contribution” and “attraction” bonuses — and sometimes retention. Function bonuses (head of department or faculty) and research chair bonuses remain in place.
“This directive allows for a transparent process in which the evaluation of the excellence of the files is done by independent committees while promoting fairness and respecting the budgetary framework of UdeM”, explains Geneviève O’Meara, institution spokesperson.
Thirty bonuses in all categories (attraction/contribution/retention), with a maximum value of $20,000, are granted each year on the basis of this directive, she specifies.