Delays and non-payment of contractors and vendors at Trent University have affected the trust in the university as an employer, according to individuals with knowledge of events which have unfolded over the past year.

When reached for comment, Trent’s Finance Office Offered a statement which noted that it “is dedicated to ensuring prompt payment of approved invoices for all vendors working with the University” and that they are aware that there have been some delayed payments.

The cause, according to Trent Finance, had to do with a staffing shortage which they are “working diligently to fill” and once having done so “are confident that any delays are being promptly addressed.”

Despite the institution's awareness of the issue, this pattern speaks to larger issues around how Trent values contract workers. The labour of contractors within research labs and across the university is pivotal to the operations of Trent. In many cases contractors are precariously employed through short-term agreements with the institution. 

Further, these workers are not always directly employed through Trent, but rather hired by researchers with funds that are granted to individuals, labs, or projects which are managed by Trent University, and many have little to no direct contact with the university itself.  

According to one contractor who spoke to Arthur, without the close relationship they had with their particular employer associated with Trent they would have left their job after the first month of non-payment. The contractor asked that they not be identified by name or by their role, as they hope to one day work in academia. 

“I did continue to work on good faith that I would get paid just because of that relationship that we had already developed. And I think that's important to know, because if we hadn't had that personable relationship, and if my partner hadn’t as well…[my work for them] would have ceased,” they told Arthur in an interview.

When asked about the length of the delays, they said that the issue had been going on for a matter of months and that they were aware of others who were facing similar challenges.    

“I had submitted my invoices, and I didn't receive payment, which was strange, because I was very used to having the payments be processed fairly quickly,” they said.

Significantly, as a student, the employee noted that this has a deep impact on their perception of Trent and academia as a place of employment. When they finally learned through their employer, and not directly from Trent, that previously filled out paperwork had to be renewed in order for payment to resume, they were left feeling that the institution had neglected to fulfill its duty and instead had shifted that responsibility onto the researcher and them as an employee.   

“It's a very neoliberal thing to shift the blame to the individual of the precarious worker, the gig worker, the graduate students, and of course in my case, I am all of those things,” they said. “I'm a hyphenate.” 

The impacts of this reality, of course, are most deeply felt by the employee, as well as their direct employer, who holds the responsibility of hiring and managing a team which in many cases supports and produces the groundbreaking research which Trent then benefits from at the level of social prestige within the academic ecosystem.

With many students needing second or third jobs in order to keep pace with the cost of living, in addition to paying their tuition, payment delays add additional stress to the lives of individuals who are attending post-secondary institutions.

While this is the case, the university as an institution can easily absolve itself of the impacts these systemic failures have on students while reaping the benefits of their labour. 

“Trent as an institution gets to hold all the benefits with very minimal risk, while having the responsibility to dish out the funds. And when they don't, it's not them who suffer because they're really large, and they're removed,” the student told Arthur. 

This issue comes just nine months after numerous graduate students, employed as teaching assistants, were not paid for the first month of their contract at the beginning of the 2022–23 academic year. 

On September 22nd, 2022 the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) reached out to affected students and explained that the “paperwork was delayed in reaching payroll due to a technical problem” and that it was now being processed by payroll. Beyond promising that teaching assistants would be paid for all work from September 1st, SGS also waived all late fees for tuition payments for the Fall 2022 semester. 

SGS also reminded students who had a positive credit balance that they could request a refund, effectively reminding students they could have access to the money they had earned through scholarships and bursaries.

Most teaching assistant contracts follow the academic year from September to April, meaning that following the summer, many graduate students are depending on their roles as teaching assistantships to pay for their tuition, as well as their regular living expenses. A delay in payment of one month is a significant financial and emotional burden for those who depend on those funds as part of an agreement between them and the university when they are admitted to their program.