As research assistants, a huge part of our job is obtaining and analyzing data. Yet there are very few statistics about RAs at SFU, whether it be their pay rate, working conditions, or even just demographics. This is a legacy of SFU treating RAs as “not SFU employees” for decades.
The Research Personnel Initiative
After pressure from the GSS, faculty members, RAs, and the community at large, in 2018 SFU undertook a “Research Personnel Initiative” under then AVP Research Dugan O’Neil and and AVP HR Sandi de Domenico. The initiative wrote up a long report that went detail about who was being paid as an RA and suggested possible paths to change the system, including making all RAs SFU employees and also finding a union in which they fit.
SFU RPI Summary Slides Presented to grad students in October 2018
How much are RAs Paid?
As part of the implementation of the Voluntary Recognition Agreement, SFU must now provide TSSU with various types of information. Each semester TSSU receives a detailed breakdown that shows RAs whom SFU considers employees are paid an average of $27.18 / hour.
The RAs that SFU is excluding from employee, primarily graduate student RAs in the Sciences and Applied Sciences are paid an average of $20 / hr, far below a living wage, and even more shocking many are paid below the legal minimum wage. The facts provide motivation as to why SFU has reneged on recognizing these workers as employees: doing so would trigger an immediate large liability first to get people paid minimum wage, and then to bring them into line with SFU’s living wage commitment.
R01510: RAs paid wages, that both TSSU and SFU Agree are RAs)
R05000: RAs paid scholarship / stipend, which TSSU includes, but SFU excludes as RAs.
