Bargaining Update - Ontario colleges and Academic employees reach new collective agreement through interest arbitration award

Ontario colleges and their full-time academic employees have finalized a new three-year collective agreement, following a mediated arbitration award issued by Arbitrator William Kaplan on July 2, 2025.

This arbitration award is the result of three days of mediation-arbitration, June 14-16, 2025, between the College Employer Council academic bargaining team, representing Ontario’s 24 publicly funded colleges, and the CAAT-A bargaining team of the Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU). The union accepted the CEC’s proposal for binding arbitration on January 8, 2025, to avoid labour disruption and ensure continuity for students.

“There can be no gloss: the colleges are facing unprecedented financial pressures brought about by federal government changes to foreign student visa rules, Provincial Attestation Letter allocations, post graduate work permits and changes and classification of instructional program coding,” stated Kaplan in the arbitration award. “Tuition freezes/reductions implemented by the provincial government are also a significant contributing factor. The overall situation is not expected to significantly change, if at all, during the term of the collective agreement being settled by this award.”

Key elements of the award include:

• annual salary increases of 3% in 2024, 2.5% in 2025, and 2 % in 2026;
• a temporary enhanced severance package, expiring at the conclusion of this agreement, reflecting the current landscape of program closures and layoffs in the Ontario college sector;
• streamlined processes for maintaining priority hiring status for partial-load employees; and
• updated language to reflect the additional preparation time needed when teaching for the first time in a new mode of delivery.

“Ontario’s colleges welcome the conclusion of this round of bargaining and the stability this agreement brings,” said Graham Lloyd, CEO of the CEC. “This was a challenging and extended process that necessitated the arbitration route that CEC sought. The resulting agreement supports our academic employees and reinforces our shared commitment to delivering high-quality education. We thank Arbitrator Kaplan for his thoughtful resolution, which provides clarity and continuity for students, faculty, and colleges across the province.”