I am pleased to announce that just one week ahead of a scheduled arbitration hearing, TSSU and SFU have come to a settlement agreement over the grievance filed in 2014 regarding the disbursement of funds from the TSSU Member Child Care Bursary.

As a result of this settlement, SFU will be depositing an additional $310,000 into the Childcare Bursary fund to be disbursed to members with childcare costs.  Achieving settlement without third party intervention leads to some optimism about our ability to solve problems with SFU in the future. Attached is a joint statement from TSSU and SFU. 

We are confident that this settlement, combined with the recently signed-off TSSU control over the terms of reference for the TSSU Child Care Bursary, will start getting money into the hands of parents and allow the bursary to fulfill the purpose for which it was created. However, these terms or reference will not be in full force and effect until we have our arbitration decision that finalizes our new collective agreement. A survey about the Childcare Bursary's new terms of reference will be forthcoming.