The administration at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., said it plans to present a complete offer to its striking faculty by Tuesday.

The professors have been off the job for a week. The two sides met for almost three hours on the weekend.

Peter McInnis, the president of the St. FX Association of University Teachers, told CBC News he's encouraged by the university's latest move.

He said it'll be the first time in eight months of negotiations that the 400 members of the union — which include faculty, librarians, lab instructors and extension staff — have received a full proposal.

"We've gone through three rounds of conciliation but they never did give us a full offer and that's problematic. We took strike action last week to convince the administration that they should get to the table in a way that's going to be productive," he said.

"If the administration does come back with the full package as they promised we need to need return with some alterations before we can settle on the deal."

McInnis said it could take a couple of days for faculty members to vote on any proposal, so the timeline to get the term restarted in a week "looks tight."

Last month, the faculty association rejected an offer by the university to raise salaries by 6.9 per cent after the union said it was arguing for an increase of 10 or 11 per cent over four years.

The union was also arguing for better working conditions, permanent status for teachers who are hired on contract and expanded health and dental benefits.

The St. FX Association of University Teachers would only say the university administration's offer was "below recent Atlantic university settlements and well below the cost of living."