UTFA is not a certified trade union. Instead, the role of the Association in representing faculty and librarians is largely prescribed in a Memorandum of Agreement between UTFA and the Governing Council of the University of Toronto. The MoA was created in the late 1970s and was developed explicitly as an alternative to union certification, though the latter is an option that remains open to faculty and librarians should they choose to exercise it.
In 2016, the Governing Council and UTFA agreed to a set of significant revisions to the MoA as a result of the Special Joint Advisory Committee (SJAC) process that began in April 2012. The MoA includes a new process to address changes to policies identified in the MoA, changes to the MoA itself, as well as other significant terms and conditions of employment for faculty and librarians contained in existing or proposed University-wide policies.