Dear UTFA Colleague,
UTFA is reaching out to you about the child care benefit to craft proposals in this area for the next round of bargaining. The University Administration was unresponsive to UTFA’s proposals in the last round, and the arbitrator did not award any improvement in the child care benefit.
The paragraphs below outline the current benefit, as well as the improvements that UTFA proposed in the last round of bargaining. These are being provided to you for context before we ask for information about your needs and use of the benefit. Details about the current child care benefit are outlined on this website (UofT login required). A summary is as follows:
- Children under the age of 7 are eligible
- Child care expenses are reimbursed at 50%, up to $20 for a full day (minimum 6 hours), $10 for a half day (minimum 4 hours)
- Maximum reimbursement is $2,000 per child
- Part-time members have the benefit prorated
- The maximum amount that can be paid out for all faculty & librarians is $1,000,000. If the total eligible claims exceed $1,000,000, your claim will be proportionately decreased so the $1,000,000 maximum is not exceeded; if the total eligible claims are less than $1,000,000, your claim will be proportionately increased so the entire $1,000,000 is spent.
During the last round of bargaining for the period July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2026, UTFA proposed improvements in the child care benefit as follows:
- Children under the age of 12 are eligible [an increase of five years to the maximum age]
- Your eligible child care expenses will be reimbursed at 100% [doubling the current amount]
- Up to $40 for a full day, and $20 for a half day [doubling the current amounts]
- Maximum reimbursement per child increased to $4000 [doubling the current amount]
Since our proposal included many facets of improvement in the benefit, we are reaching out to understand better your priorities in this area, which will inform our upcoming proposal in bargaining.
There is a short (< 5-minute) survey available at this link, specifically intended for UTFA members who are currently using the child care benefit or have recently done so. If you have not used the child care benefit in the past five years, please disregard.
With thanks,
Jun Nogami
UTFA Vice-President, Salary, Benefits, Pensions & Workload
Terezia Zorić
UTFA President