As many of you will recall, a group grievance was filed pertaining to the mandatory 3 days of training in September 2015. There was no resolution found at the grievance level and so we referred the grievance to Arbitration. We attended this Arbitration on September 2nd of this year.
Here are the results. The Arbitrator ruled in our favour insofar as to state that “ I find that the College violated Article 11.08”. The Arbitrator agreed with our position that the College imposed the training and did not obtain consent as stated in the Collective Agreement Article 11.08.
This ruling sets a useful precedent in preventing the College from reversing the order of having non teaching period work allocated. This means the College cannot assign the activity first, then get consent later. Note that the training that was offered this fall was not labelled as mandatory.
These Arbitration rulings also impact all of the other Colleges.
I want to thank all the Faculty who signed this grievance, and made this group grievance possible as a result.
In essence, this grievance which resulted in an Arbitrator ruling, has served to uphold and preserve the strength of Article 11.08. It has also put the College on notice that we will stand up for our rights as set out in the Collective Agreement.
If you need or would like further information about this, please contact any member of your LEC.
Respectfully,
Suzanne Tremblay,
Chief Steward