Overview and introduction.
The Association of Retired Faculty and Librarians of York University (ARFL) believes that both the University and retirees benefit from a close and continuing post-retirement association. We represent the interests of retired faculty and librarians and we are particularly concerned with pensions and post-retirement benefits. These include both medical and dental benefits as well as issues such as post-retirement teaching, supervision of postgraduate students and continued access to research funding. ARFL is associated with the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) who bargains for post-retirement benefits on our behalf. We are also a member of the College and University Retiree Associations of Canada (CURAC). ARFL keeps in touch with its members via a newsletter as well as this website and email. We also maintain an internet discussion group which members may join and participate in. If you are a retiree who is not a member of ARFL, we urge you to join us so that we can continue to have a strong voice at York in support of the interests of retirees. A membership form is available from the links at the top of this page (aussi disponible en français). Here are links to the flyer we make available to newly retired faculty and librarians, and to our constitution : ARFL Flyer page 1 [PDF]
ARFL Flyer page 2 [PDF]
Constitution of the Association [PDF]
Recent News ....................
2011 Fall Newsletter now on-line
Click on Newsletters in the Links Section at the top. ( Or, short cut, click here. ) - A.(Tony) Wallis, now the Newsletter editor.
Previous News ...................
(Some of these items will be legacy, and may be deleted in the future.)(Old News) Annual General Meeting: 2011 November 25
Agenda, etc [10-page PDF] (click on this).
President, Vice-President, Treasurer Reports [3-page PDF] (click on this).
12 noon to 3 pm
Harry Crowe Room, Atkinson College
Food and beverages catered.
( Some constitutional amendments will be presented
at the meeting. In the Newsletter, see below.)
Photograph of attendees at the 2011 May Membership Meeting: Click here to see photograph
Membership Meeting - Friday, May 27, 2011 ( Legacy item, for future delete. )
A reminder of the ARFL membership meeting Friday, May 27 in the Harry Crowe Room, Atkinson College. A light lunch will be provided at noon. The Provost and Vice-President Academic, Patrick Monahan, will be joining us at 2:15 pm to discuss the role of retirees in the 'Engaged University'. The agenda and officers' reports for the meeting are now available at this link. Membership Meeting. (Or click on the link "Meeting Documents' in the links section at the top of this page.) Hope to see you on Friday, Al Stauffer President, ARFL
2011 Spring Newsletter on-line. ( Legacy item, for future delete. )
The 2011 Spring (nominally May) issue of the Newsletter is now available. It is an 11-pager, and has considerable content re Pensions. Click on Newsletters in the Links section at the top. Hardcopies have been snail-mailed to those who are on our mailing list, after a marathon session at which we, the Executive, got together to stuff envelopes, label, stamp, etc. Many thanks are due to Roger Heeler, our Newsletter Editor, for his diligent work over the years of solicitation of articles, coordination of editing, production and delivery of materials to the aforementioned stuffing, etc, sessions. - A. (Tony) Wallis, Assistant Newsletter Editor and website tinkerer.
Access Copyright
If you own the copyright to material you have published you may be able to collect payment for reproduction of your work. See the details at this link:Copyright payback [PDF] The website for registering for Access Canada is Access copyright
Pension Questions
Here are some questions and answers about the current state of the York Pension Plan and how this will effect your present and future pensions. Pension Questions [PDF]
Home and Auto Insurance, CARP membership.
CURAC has arranged special rates for home and auto insurance though Waterloo Insurance. The information is contained in Letter from CURAC [PDF] Members who are interested can contact Waterloo Insurance directly. The ARFL Executive has no independent information about the company or the competitiveness of its rates and is circulating this letter for information only. CURAC has also arranged for reduced membership rates for CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons). For details see Reduced CARP Membership Rates
PER accounts
When Senior Scholars receive notice that they will be receiving their last PER allocation in May of a given fiscal year, the funds in the account must be committed by the end ofthe following April. However, they are allowed 7 months (until December 31st of that year) to submit claims against any accumulated balance in the PER accounts. At that time (December 31st of that year, that is), their PER account is deactivated but the Senior Scholar would still be entitled to other non-cash privileges such as use of computer and secretarial services, access to office space, eligibility for travel/ research grants, etc. If you feel that these procedures have not been followed in the case of your PER account you should contact Barry Miller for clarification : bmiller@yorku.ca Please let ARFL know if any problems cannot be resolved satisfactorily: yuarfl@web.net Retirees were recently notified of new conditions on the use of PER funds. ARFL considered this new policy to be excessively restrictive and some members of the ARFL executive met with the Vice-Preseident Academic, Patrick Monahan, to request a review of the PER policy. The Vice-President was sympathetic to our concerns and initiated a review of the new policy. We are pleased to inform you that the use of PER funds to attend conferences or for professional dues and membership in learned societies is now the same as for pre-retirees provided the retiree is a Senior Scholar who is teaching or is engaged in appropriate scholarly activity. See Reimbursement, Senior Scholars [PDF] Another significant change is that the expense reports are now approved by a Dean or Principal instead of the Vice-President Research. We would like to thank Vice-President Monahan for taking up this issue on behalf of retirees and for restoring the use of PER funds equivalent to pre-retirees for those retirees who are active scholars.
Post-Retirement Health Benefits
Here is some information about post retirement benefits and alternate providers for retired members. This article appeared in the September 2007 ARFL Newsletter. Retiree Health Benefits [PDF]
News on the 2009 Collective Agreement
Here is our Newsletter article on the benefits to retirees in the new YUFA Collective Agreement. New benefits [PDF] Here is a communication from YUFA regarding the meaning of the term 'Normal Retirement Date' in the new Collective Agreement. Normal Retirement Date [PDF]
Shadow Pension
The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) tribunal has rendered its decision on the question of whether concept of a 'shadow pension' was supported by the language of the York Pension Plan. The Tribunal found that there was a difference between 'pension payable' and 'pension paid' and, as a result, the University was entitled to continue to calculate the 'pension payable' (even though it was not being paid) and apply the adjustment to that amount, only increasing the 'pension paid' when the 'pension payable' exceeded the previous year's 'pension paid'. In short, the 'shadow pension' will remain. There may be further hearings on a couple of outstanding issues. However, no decision on whether these will proceed has been decided at this time.
2006 Cohort
The grievance concerning the 2006 Cohort has been settled. Details [PDF]
( This simplified - style-reduced, HTML only - version updated 2011-Nov-5 by AW ) ( Updated re 2011 AGM (Nov 25), 2011-Nov-23; revised post-AGM, Nov 29 by AW )