Many members have worked at York as contract faculty for decades, and may be thinking about retirement. On this page and the next, you will find what you need to know about retiring from Unit 2.
Pension Plan
Unit 2 members can join the York University Pension Plan if they are not part of another full-time plan. In order to be eligible for the Plan, you need to have taught at least one Type 1 or equivalent in each of the two preceding years. If you are eligible, you should receive notification of your eligibility and an example of the pension calculations by October 31st of each year. If you have questions about the Pension Plan, you can contact the Pension and Benefits Office at askpb@yorku.ca or 416-736-5853, or visit https://retire.info.yorku.ca/.
Post-Retirement Benefits
Members who are in the Pension Plan and retire are eligible for a health benefit spending account in the amount of $2000 per year. In order to be eligible, you must give notice to retire (with at least three months notice), activate your Pension Plan, and apply for postretirement benefits in writing to the Pension and Benefits office. You have 12 months from the date of your last contract to give notice of your retirement, which involves a full severing of your relationship with the university (i.e., your seniority count will be rendered null and you accept that you will not be working at York in the future).
Transitional Continuing Appointments (TCA)
One of the main points of contention in the 2020-21 bargaining round was the creation of an “off-ramp” for members who are approaching retirement and want to scale down their teaching in exchange for an agreed-upon end date of their relationship with York. This takes the form of the Transitional Continuing Appointment (TCA).
In order to be eligible for the TCA, you must have at least 20 years of service (or 15 years if you are a member of one or more equity-seeking groups), and a seniority count of 30 (or 20 for members of one or more equity-seeking groups). A TCA decreases your teaching load over two or three years, ending in retirement with severance. Your course load for the duration of the TCA is determined by the length of the TCA and your teaching intensity over the last five years.
If you are eligible for the TCA you should receive notice by September 30th of each year in which the program runs. TCA applications are due November 1st. For now, we only have a commitment from the employer to run it for the life of this collective agreement (i.e., 2022 is the last year).
If you have questions about the TCA, contact Julian Arend, CUPE 3903 Staff Representative, at cupe3903staff@gmail.com.