We are pleased to announce that, on June 3, UTFA reached a mediated agreement with the U of T Administration regarding the UniForm Global Benchmarking Program. In March 2019, it was relayed to UTFA that the UniForm Global Benchmarking Program would engage participation from academic staff at U of T, specifically UTFA librarians.
UTFA is deeply concerned about the introduction of the Ontario government’s performance-based funding model in the post-secondary sector (see OCUFA’s analysis). Therefore, safeguarding all of our members from assessment based on quantitative metrics was at the forefront of our efforts in this mediation.
The June 3, 2019, mediated agreement restricts the use of data collected by the UniForum program:
"...data collected through the UniForum Program will not be referred to or relied on: (i) in connection with the termination of a librarian or an assessment of the performance of any faculty member or librarian, including any tenure process, continuing status process, permanent status process, promotion process, or PTR process, and (ii) in any Article 6 negotiations as to the terms and conditions of employment of faculty members and librarians. It is understood and agreed that librarians will not be required to participate in the UniForum training and data collection process for themselves or other librarians. There will be no reprisal against any librarian for refusal to participate in the UniForum training and data collection process for themselves or other librarians."
See the full text of the settlement at this link.
In light of the assurances above, UTFA settled its Association Grievance, which was filed after UTFA learned of plans to introduce the UniForum Program and extend it to librarians.