This petition is to lobby the University of Ottawa to fulfill its obligations under the Occupational Health & Safety Act (OH&SA).
The law (OH&SA) requires that all employees in Ontario be paid to complete mandatory training on certain subjects: accessibility & accommodation, workplace dangers & hazardous materials, violence & harassment, etc. Yet the University of Ottawa has less than 40% completion for this training for the largest workforce on campus: part-time academic staff (TAs, RAs & part-time professors, represented by CUPE 2626 and APTPUO respectively).
It would cost the University of Ottawa $240 per worker upon completion of six hours of mandatory Health and Safety training. CUPE 2626 demands that this amount be given on top of workers’ regular contracts. We ask for an “on-boarding” contract to complete the training so that workers are not faced with the false dilemma of having to choose between doing the training or teaching students.
Please sign this petition right now to encourage the University to pay its workers for mandatory training.
If the University of Ottawa’s top Executives can afford salary increases as high as $59,600 per year, then surely the Administration can afford to pay workers $240 for mandatory, legally mandated Health and Safety training.
CUPE 2626’s requests in this regard have been continuously ignored. Meanwhile, the situation with the University of Ottawa’s Executive salary increases has caused outrage on campus and in the community. “The union representing professors at the University of Ottawa is asking for a judicial review of raises given to two senior university administrators, raises that the union says contravene Ontario’s public sector wage freeze,” explains an Ottawa Citizen article that exposes how and why the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa (APUO) is suing the employer for extravagant pay increased made to certain VPs.
From the APUO website, below is a breakdown of the proposed University of Ottawa Executive Board wage increases:
| Position | Current salary | Proposed increase | Total if salary increase is approved |
| President | $ 395,000 | $ 59,600 | $ 454,600 |
| Vice-President Academic and Provost | $ 297,000 | $ 53,500 | $ 350,500 |
| Vice-President Research | $ 297,677 | $ 2,123 | $ 299,800 |
| Vice-President Resources | $ 270,000 | $ 28,700 | $ 298,700 |
| Vice-President External Relations | $ 300,000 | $ 11,900 | $ 311,900 |
Please sign this petition right now to encourage the University to pay its workers for mandatory training. Let’s put a stop to the rhetoric of austerity and demand that the University of Ottawa fulfill is legal obligation to provide all workers with paid Health and Safety Training.
These salary increases directly contradict the University administration’s austerity rhetoric which has resulted in budgetary cuts across all services. “We have seen 4 % budgetary cuts to all Faculties, cuts to the library, and continuously increases the workload of professors, librarians, and support staff, all-the-while increasing student tuition fees. These cuts have a direct impact on this institution’s ability to fulfill its strategic mandate, which is, delivering the highest quality of education and research, and improving the student experience,” explains APUO.
In solidarity,
CUPE 2626
