Retroactive Pay
Research assistants and research associates should have received retroactive pay on the pay of Thursday December 7. Although some issues concerning retroactive pay have been resolved since our last newsletter on December 23, others remain outstanding. AMURE President Sean Cory has filed grievances concerning the outstanding issues and is in continuous discussion with McGill to resolve them.
For more detailed information on eligibility for retroactive pay and what it is supposed to include, please refer to the collective agreement. If you have questions about your specific situation, please contact Sean (sean.cory@aerum-amure.ca).
Holiday Vacation Days
A reminder to all full-time and part-time AMURE members that you are entitled to paid leave for 2 upcoming statutory holidays on Friday, March 29 and Monday, April 1. Casual employees receive an indemnity for holidays on top of their pay. More information on statutory holidays can be found in the collective agreement and on McGill’s website.
AMURE Tip of the Month: McGill Pension Plan
Employer-sponsored pension plans are considered an important component of an employee’s compensation package and aim to provide income during retirement, supplementing amounts received from government programs such as the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) and Old Age Security (OAS). Research employees at McGill are encouraged to join the McGill Pension Plan, membership in which becomes mandatory for full-time employees after 5 years of continuous service. While full and part-time research employees can opt in as of their start date, casual employees must wait until they have worked 700 hours or earned 35% of the annual maximum pensionable earnings (which for 2024 is $68,500).
Research employees who joined the McGill Pension Plan on or after January 1, 2009 are part of a defined contribution plan. In such a plan, the employee and employer each contribute a certain amount to the plan each pay period. The employee is offered a range of investment options in which they can invest their contributions. When the employee retires, they can use the amount accumulated in their plan to pay themselves a retirement income. The amount accumulated will depend on the contributions they have made over the years, and the investment gains those contributions have achieved.
Contribution rates for McGill employees who have joined the pension plan vary based on employee age. Up until the age of 39, employees are required to contribute a minimum of 5% of their basic earnings, less the 1.8% of earnings that are subject to QPP contributions. The employee’s taxable income is reduced by the amount of their contributions, reducing their tax owing for that year. In addition, McGill matches the employee’s contributions dollar for dollar, up to the maximum of 5% of their basic earnings. These matched contributions from McGill are a form of compensation that the employee will miss out on if they opt out of the pension plan during their first 5 years at McGill. As employee age increases beyond 39, minimum required contributions increase to 7% (up to age 49) and 8% (up to age 65) of basic earnings, with McGill matching increasing to 7.5% and 10% for these two age groups.
McGill employees’ pension accounts are managed by Sun Life Financial. If you have already opted into the McGill Pension Plan, you can view your account balance and manage your investment portfolio by logging into Sun Life here. If you have not yet created a Sun Life account, please refer to this document for information on how to do so. If you wish to opt into the McGill Pension Plan, you can do so via your Workday account. Detailed information on the McGill Pension Plan and how to opt into it can be found here and here. Those webpages also provide information on the Defined benefit plan which was available to employees prior to 2009.
Professors’ Strike
Law Professors at McGill University recently made headlines as the first faculty members to ever stage a strike in McGill’s history. The Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), which became the first faculty union at McGill in 2022, held a one-day strike on February 13 to pressure McGill to negotiate a collective agreement in good faith. According to representatives of AMPL, McGill has refused to meet with AMPL’s bargaining team on a regular basis, has slowed down meetings when they do occur, and insists on simply referring to McGill Policies in the collective agreement, which would in effect allow it to make unilateral changes to professors’ working conditions at any time, defeating the purpose of any collective agreement. You can read more about the strike in the McGill Tribune, Newswire, and AMPL’s website.
FTQ annual seminar
The Fédération des travailleurs et travailleueses du Québec (FTQ) is holding their annual retirement and insurance seminar on March 20-21. Members interested in attending can check out this link.
AMURE Member Benefits
McGill research employees are entitled to benefits and discounts through their affiliation to the University and as members of AMURE. These include:
- A 15% discount for VIA Rail Canada leisure trips for McGill staff members and up to 3 additional people traveling with the staff member.
- Union Savings discounts in various categories, including insurance, entertainment, travel, home, sports and leisure, fashion, services, electronics, and beauty products. Please note that to benefit from Union Savings you will need to create an account, indicating PSAC as your affiliated union.
- PSAC-Quebec member benefits, including discounts at certain hotels.
- Free $10,000 life insurance from PSAC.
- Exclusive group rates for home and auto insurance with The Personal.