The University of Western Ontario is offering voluntary retirement incentives to faculty and staff to minimize the need for layoffs to meet budget constraints.
The announcement comes in response to the global stock market crisis which has forced the university to examine ways to decrease spending. To make up for expected budget shortfalls – a result of investment income declines in endowed and non-endowed funds – the university is forced to reduce its operating costs, the biggest portion of which is labour.
“Over 75 per cent of faculty/department budgets are allocated for salary and benefit costs. If we need to reduce our expenditures, the salary and benefit costs will need to be reduced,” says Jane O’Brien, Associate Vice-President (Human Resources).
A one-time voluntary retirement incentive is available for regular, full-time Professional Managerial Association (PMA) eligible employees, continuing and sessional employees of The University of Western Ontario Staff Association (UWOSA) and regular, full-time employees of Select Administrative Group Employees (SAGE). A financial allowance is also part of the incentive package.
“The retirement incentive option is one of our strategies we are using to minimize the number of people affected by position elimination/layoff and to maximize the re-employment opportunities within Western for people whose jobs are directly affected by the changing budget picture,” says O’Brien.
The phased retirement option for faculty has also been modified to give faculty the opportunity to take retirement sooner. To be eligible, faculty members must be within 10 years of their normal retirement date and have at least 10 years of service at Western.
“We recognize people aren’t necessarily ready to retire full-stop and would like to ease into retirement,” says Michele Parkin, Director of Faculty Relations, adding the new option allows faculty members to reduce their workload over one or two years prior to full retirement.
“We found the three-year plan might be too restrictive for some people,” she adds. “Because the university is interested in reducing its workforce at this time, we thought it would be appropriate to offer additional options.”
Interested faculty must notify the appropriate dean by March 31.
The retirement incentive is only available for staff positions whose salary is funded by the operating or ancillary budgets.
To qualify for the incentive option, as of July 1 staff members belonging to these groups must:
be eligible to retire under terms of the pension plan for administrative staff; the sum of the employee’s age and years of regular full-time service is at least 75; and he or she must receive a salary paid from the university.
Interested staff members must submit an application by March 16.
Information sessions to review and clarify the staff incentive option will be offered on Feb. 13 and 17. Faculty and staff also can attend retirement planning sessions during the weeks of Feb. 16 and 23.
For more information on the retirement incentive options or to view a detailed agenda for these sessions, visit www.uwo.ca/humanresources/volretire.htm. To speak with a certified employee benefit specialists contact 519-661-2194 or e-mail hr-communication@uwo.ca.