Definitions
Employee: Any individual with a Postdoctoral Associate appointment.
Postdoctoral Associate, Postdoctoral Fellowship Holder, Guest Postdoctoral Scholar: Postdoctoral scholars are no longer isolated to only one category but can hold multiple appointments across the three categories.

​

​

Article 4: PDAC Membership
All postdocs with a “Postdoctoral Associate” appointment will pay membership dues. Current approved membership dues are $28/month ($14/pay cheque).

​

Article 5: Appointments

No “Postdoctoral Associate” will lose the protections and benefits guaranteed under this Collective Agreement due to receiving external funding.

• Postdoctoral Associates who receive external funding will keep their “Postdoctoral Associate” (employee) appointment at a minimum amount of 5% of their original salary.

• In addition to their Associate appointment, a postdoc will be offered a 2nd appointment as either a “Postdoctoral Fellowship Holder” or “Guest Postdoctoral Scholar” based upon the regulations for the external funding they received.

Article 7: Hours of Work

No Employee may be disciplined for refusing to work greater than 50 hours/week.

Article 8: Compensation and Benefits

• Minimum salary: $40,000 / year (highest in Canada!)

• Employees are entitled to single (or family) Group Benefits paid by their supervisor.

  • No employee will lose their Group Benefits due to receiving external funding.

• As postdocs, you will now have access to tuition support for yourself (after 6 months of employment) and your spouses

and dependents (after 1 year of employment).

Article 10: Leaves

• Minimum number of personal days increased from 2 weeks to 3 weeks (for year 1 & 2 of your appointment) and to 4 weeks in years 3+.

• Casual illness leave: You can take up to 5 consecutive work days off due to injury or illness without loss of income or benefits. There is no limit as to the number of times you can be away for casual illness, but you must return to work for at least 1 day after 5 days of casual illness.

• Maternity and parental leave top-up: For the first time, all postdoctoral employees will receive a salary top-up to 95% of their salary for up to 18 weeks.

​

Article 14: Terminations

If a postdoc is terminated without cause prior to the end of their contract and they are not given notice, they must be provided pay in lieu of notice based upon all of their continuous years as a postdoc at the University of Calgary, and not just their current appointment.

​

Article 15: Grievances, Mediation and Arbitration

Postdocs finally have a formal grievance process to access if they feel that an Article (or Articles) of this Collective Agreement has (have) been violated.

Article 17: Academic Freedom

Postdocs have the right to academic freedom so long as we abide by the duties and responsibilities agreed to and summarized in our appointment letter.

​

Article 22: Association Rights and Privileges

PDAC representatives are permitted to perform their official PDAC business as required.

​

Article 23: No Strikes, No Lock Outs

Postdocs agree not to go on strike & the University agrees to not lockout postdocs during the term of this Agreement

Article 25: Duration

3 years: January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024

​

​

PDAC postdoc members have the right for union representation during investigatory or pre-disciplinary meetings with the Employer.

​

The Labour Relations Code Section 153(1) Fair Representation, states the following:

No trade union, Employer or person acting on behalf of a trade union shall deny an employee or former employee who is or was in the bargaining unit the right to be fairly represented by the trade union with respect to the employees or former employees' rights under the collective agreement.  

​

For more information contact Kim Smith (PDAC Executive Director/Labour Relations Expert).

​

Waiver of Representation Document

​