Judge rules in favour of challenge, U of O to pay $7,500 in costs
A judge has ruled in favour of a challenge brought forward by the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa (APUO) in 2015 over a salary increase for two senior executives at the U of O.
The challenge came following an increase in the salaries of Dr. Mona Nemer, vice-president of research, and Dr. Jacques Bradwejn, dean of the U of O’s School of Medicine, in 2014.
Nemer’s pay increased 50 per cent between 2012 and 2014, to a total of $392,058. Bradwejn’s salary increased to $422,571 in 2014, $36,000 more than he earned in 2012, and was raised again to $422,780 in 2015.
The APUO alleged that this pay increase goes against the Ontario public sector wage freeze, with the complaint first being made at a Board of Governors meeting in July 2015. A formal lawsuit was then filed in December of that year.
The U of O did attempt to stop this lawsuit by the APUO, an organization that represents roughly 1,250 full-time faculty members and librarians at the university, saying that only the provincial government could challenge salary raises.
However, the judge presiding over the case, Justice Giovanna Toscano Roccamo, disagreed with the university and allowed the APUO’s lawsuit to continue forward.
In her ruling, Roccamo also ordered the U of O to pay $7,500 in costs to the APUO. However, according to the Ottawa Citizen, the university is now attempting to overturn this ruling.
A full list of professors’ and faculty members’ salaries can be found in the Ontario Sunshine List.
