December Event for Members
Mark your calendars AMURE members! We are hosting a holiday event for members on Thursday, December 5 at 6 pm at Thomson House (3650 McTavish Street)! Food and drink will be provided and we look forward to meeting and mingling with you all! If you plan to join, please make sure to RSVP at this link.
AMURE General Assembly
Thank you to all the members who participated in our General Assembly on June 19, 2024. The minutes of the meeting can be found on our website, and to become acquainted with our elected executive committee and board members, check out their information here.
Webinar on FTQ RRSP+ for AMURE Members
AMURE has coordinated with the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleueses du Québec(FTQ) to provide members with a webinar about the Fonds de solidarité FTQ RRSP+program. A brief overview of the RRSP+ program was provided in our last newsletter, and this webinar is designed to provide members with a more in-depth description of the program and the opportunity to ask questions. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, November 27 at lunchtime from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm and will be presented by 2 coordinators of the RRSP+ program, Andréanne Samson and Louis Neantam-Lapalme. Members can join the webinar via this Teams link. If you plan to attend, please also make sure to RSVP here.
Upcoming Holidays
As the holidays approach, a reminder to all non-casual AMURE members that you are entitled to paid leave for 3 paid statutory holidays (Dec 25, 26, and Jan 1), an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and a sixth floating day to be taken during the University’s Christmas break. Since Christmas day falls on a Wednesday this year, you are entitled to paid leave on Dec 25, 26, 27, 30, 31 and on Jan 1 and 2. Information on December (and other) statutory holidays can be found in the collective agreement and on McGill’s website.
AMURE Tip of the Month: McGill Pension Plan
We have provided information on the McGill Pension Plan, how it works, and how to opt into it in a previous newsletter. You can refer to our March newsletter on our website if you would like to read that over again. Interestingly, the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) recently conducted an independent review of the pension plan at McGill and found some major flaws, including that it is not competitive with the plans of other universities. As an example, for employees younger than 39, McGill will match their pension contributions dollar for dollar up to a maximum of 3.2% of the portion of their salary that is below the annual maximum pensionable earnings (which is $68,500 for 2024), and up to a maximum of 5% of the portion of their salary that is above the annual maximum pensionable earnings. At Université de Montréal, on the other hand, all employees receive matched contributions from the university equivalent to 11.43% of their total earnings. Although UdeM has a defined benefit pension program (as opposed to McGill’s defined contribution program) and the contribution rates may not be directly comparable as a result, it does give an idea of how much more UdeM is willing to pay into its employees’ pension funds compared to McGill. The AMPL have released a short video discussing their review, which you can watch here.
That said, the matched contributions from McGill, despite being lower than those offered by other universities, are still a form of compensation that the employee will miss out on if they choose to opt out of the pension plan during their first 5 years at McGill. McGill employees’ pension accounts are managed by Sun Life Financial. If you have already opted into the McGill Pension Plan, you can view your account balance and manage your investment portfolio by logging into Sun Life here. If you have not selected an investment portfolio for your account, your pension contributions are invested in the Balanced Account by default. This may not necessarily be the account that best fits your risk profile. You may be open to more risk, or you may be more conservative, in which case another account might be better for you. Different accounts also charge different fees. So, we strongly suggest that you log into your Sun Life profile and ensure your pension is invested in an account that best fits your needs. If you have not yet created a Sun Life account, please refer to this document for information on how to do so. If you wish to opt into the McGill Pension Plan, you can do so via your Workday account. Detailed information on the McGill Pension Plan and how to opt into it can be found here and here.