Performance Salary Adjustment (PSA) are granted at the discretion of the university when provided for in the Collective Agreement.
The UBC Faculty Association negotiates the total amount to be allocated to such awards and the criteria for distributing the awards.
The amount of merit and PSA allocated to each unit is distributed on a pro-rata basis, based on the total academic dollars in each unit. For the purpose of the merit and PSA processes, unit includes all faculties, extended learning, the library and the Office of the VP Academic.
It's expected that the cost of any merit awards or PSA allocations made to members who are partially or fully funded from non-university operating funds will be borne by the non-university funds
Policy and allocation procedure
Heads and directors must consult with a reasonable number of colleagues within their unit prior to finalizing the unit’s policy or approach to the allocation of Merit and PSA. The finalized policy should be included with the procedures, which must be distributed as per below.
Heads and directors must distribute the written procedures to all members eligible to be considered for merit and PSA. These procedures must address the process for joint appointments, if applicable.
All faculty members eligible for consideration for merit or PSA shall submit to the head of the unit a summary of their relevant scholarly, teaching and service activities and may include an indication of the nature and significance of the activities. After awards are confirmed and implemented, the unit head must distribute a list to all eligible faculty member of those faculty members who are awarded merit and a list of those awarded PSA (but not the amounts).
Eligibility
All continuing members of the bargaining unit who are active on both June 30 and July 1, 2021 are eligible for merit and PSA.
Please note that sessional lecturers are not eligible for merit and PSA.
To be considered for merit members must have had active service during the merit review year (normally April 1 to March 31). Members continue to be eligible for consideration for merit awards and PSA while on leave, although leave may reduce the period of review.
Unit heads/directors of faculty members who hold joint appointments must confer regarding joint appointments. Primary responsibility for ensuring that the process is properly followed for a joint appointment rest with the head/director of the home department.
Performance salary adjustments (PSA)
PSA allocations are communicated individually to each unit by UBC's faculty relations department.
Recommendations for PSA awards are made having regard to overall performance. The factors that should be taken into account are:
- performance over a period of time which is worthy of recognition
- the relationship of a faculty member’s salary to that of other faculty taking into consideration total years of service at UBC, and
- market considerations.
PSA awards must be based on these three factors and may not be used as additional merit dollars.
Assessment process
In assessing a faculty member’s performance unit heads shall take advice from a reasonable number of colleagues representative of each of the ranks in the unit before deciding whether to recommend PSA. In distributing PSA, faculties and departments shall give particular consideration to those who are beyond the career progress schedule for their current rank. It's inappropriate to recommend PSA to compensate for salary differentials that result from the differential award of merit.
Note that PSA is not normally awarded for members in their first three years of employment as a faculty member at UBC.
Please note that the 0.5% PSA allocation for each faculty must first be reduced by the cost of carry-forward career progress increments and the LOS CP retro units.
The recommended PSA award expressed in dollars should be entered in the appropriate column of the worksheet (See Section 5 for information on completing the merit-PSA summary spreadsheet).
The Merit-PSA Summary spreadsheet
The Merit-PSA Summary spreadsheet (xls) has been created to summarize allocations. For 2021 July awards please use the 2021 Merit & PSA Summary Spreadsheet.
Each faculty must complete a Merit PSA Summary spreadsheet listing all members of the faculty unit to whom merit and/or PSA is being awarded, showing the amount of each award in the Merit PSA Summary spreadsheet.
Merit-PSA Summary spreadsheets should be returned to UBC's faculty relations department by each dean’s office (or equivalent office) at the same time as the faculty salary increase spreadsheets. Departments should not return their individual spreadsheets to Faculty Relations.
Processing merit and PSA awards
For the merit and PSA awards to be processed as part of the automatic increase process, all merit and PSA allotments must be entered on the Faculty Salary Increase spreadsheets before they're returned to UBC's faculty relations department. If the amounts aren't entered on the spreadsheets, they'll have to be processed manually.
Remember that you must also send the Merit PSA Summary spreadsheet for your Faculty to Nicole Hyatt.
After the increases are confirmed (normally the end of June), the unit head/director must arrange for a list of individuals receiving merit and PSA awards to be circulated individually to all members of the unit, including names of who received what type of increase, but not the actual amounts of the increase.