Excluded Staff at SFU
Today, I’m writing about the “Excluded Staff” or APEX employee group, as APSA does receive requests for help from APEX members. Some of the differences between APSA and APEX can also be illuminating when you consider the pluses of a representative organization like APSA. If you’re not too familiar with the APEX group, it comprises around a hundred positions on campus: think SFU senior administration and Human Resources personnel as more obvious examples.
Even though APSA doesn’t (and can’t) represent APEX members, I don’t like to turn away people seeking help. I’ve been approached for guidance by APEX members from the highest level of the administration to those lower down in the SFU hierarchy. I provide what limited support I can — often legal referrals.
One reason APEX members approach APSA is because the APEX group has no collective representation as APSA members do. In APSA, you have my team and our volunteer advocates, backed by legal guidance, to assist you with workplace matters. APSA also bargains collectively on your behalf and can resist having concessions imposed on APSA members by SFU, as can and has happened in APEX. In APEX, there is also no association or union to represent your workplace interests: you’re very much on your own if difficulties arise for you. Your only effective option for representation is to hire a personal lawyer at your own expense.
Some Differences Between APSA and APEX
Recently, an APEX member approached me and noted that they didn’t receive the same Pacific Blue Cross (PBC) prescription drug coverage as they did in APSA. I had to explain that APEX benefits are, in some respects, not as good as APSA benefits. APEX members have a managed drug formulary through PBC: in some cases, this means that brand-name drugs may only be covered up to the cost of a generic equivalent. When in APSA, as the APEX member noted, they were covered for the full cost of the brand-name drug.
What’s important here is that APSA, in the last two rounds of collective bargaining, resisted accepting a managed drug formulary for our members, as it provided less brand-name drug coverage, among other significant issues. As APEX has no representation, has no collective bargaining framework, such benefit changes can simply be imposed by SFU on APEX members.
Another APEX member lamented to me that performance-based salary increases (merit pay) have been frozen by the B.C. government for the B.C. public sector. In APEX, members don’t receive step increases as most APSA members do every July 1. Their salary increases are apparently more strictly tied to their performance, though even for APSA members performance obviously does matter when it comes to step increases. In early 2026, due to fiscal constraints, the B.C. government froze merit pay for excluded employees in the B.C. public sector, which includes all APEX members. In short, most APSA members keep getting their step increases while APEX member salaries remain frozen for an indefinite period of time.
Do APEX Members Have Options for Collective Representation?
This was a question posed to me recently by an APEX member. I’m no employment lawyer and can only offer a limited opinion on this complicated matter. Theoretically, if a subset of APEX members don’t actually meet the criteria for exclusion under the B.C. Labour Relations Code in the day-to-day performance of their jobs, it is possible that they could configure themselves as a representative organization or be organized by one.
Seeking legal advice on the criteria for exclusions by the Labour Relations Board may be a good start for such an endeavour, as would legal advice on this complex question in general.
As always, take care,
Andrew