Issues

OHFA Bursary (2017)

Posted 30 June 2017

The costs of law school put a major financial burden on Osgoode students. To settle a grievance against the Osgoode Administration for a lack of notice and meaningful consultation with OHFA, the Association proposed and the Employer agreed to contribute $50,000 to a new bursary that will be disbursed annually by the Administration to support Osgoode students in financial need.

For information, click here.

Bargaining

Posted 28 December 2016

OHFA bargains on behalf of Osgoode faculty with our employer, York University. We obtained our first formal collective agreement with York University in 2012 and our second collective agreement, after 17 months of bargaining, in 2016.

Our most-recent negotiating mandate, approved by members in 2015, emphasized these priorities:

• defending the role of academic faculty at Osgoode as an academic institution;
• ensuring there are enough academic faculty to maintain Osgoode’s teaching and research mission;
• enabling academic faculty to invest sufficient time in teaching and research;
• insisting on transparency and equity in the distribution of research, teaching, and administrative activities;
• calling for parity with teaching and research conditions at the University of Toronto law faculty (though not with salary levels out of respect for Osgoode faculty’s historical and ongoing commitment to support lower tuition and greater accessibility);
• addressing the troubling anomalies and inequities that appear to have arisen due to the flat-lining of the minimum starting salary for junior faculty and from the Dean’s discretion in the setting of starting salaries.

In bargaining and otherwise, OHFA is deeply committed to protecting Osgoode as an academic institution. We think that this objective serves our members but also students, the legal community, and the public.