Chief Steward Response to WRA Award, October 27, 2014
A Workload Resolution Arbitrator has determined that “Open House” is strictly voluntary and faculty are not required to attend.
In a decision released October 27, 2014, by Arbitrator Norm Jesin regarding the sign-back of three faculty members’ swf’s for failure to include attendance at Open House, Mr. Jesin relied on the College’s submissions that Open House is conducted on a purely voluntary basis to decide that, on that basis, voluntary attendance did not need to be included on a swf. Of note – because the College has decided not to “assign” the work of Open House attendance, the College cannot compel any faculty member to attend.
Accordingly, no member of faculty should feel pressured to attend. In particular, please note the following:
– Members of management cannot compel or otherwise pressure any faculty member to attend at Open House
– Attendance at Open House does not fall within the duties assigned to a coordinator
– Coordinators are not required to attend at Open House
– Coordinators are not required to solicit other faculty to attend at Open House and coordinators must not pressure other faculty to attend at Open House
– Faculty teaching within a specific program, regardless of the size or success of the program, are not required to attend at Open House and must not pressure other faculty to attend at Open House
– Members of management, coordinators and/or other faculty who do engage in pressuring other faculty to attend may be engaging in harassing and/or bullying behaviour which is a breach of article 4 of the Collective Agreement as well as other applicable legislation
In light of Arbitrator Jesin’s decision and as a matter of respect for one another, we ask that faculty respect the right of all faculty to decide not to volunteer time on a Saturday to attend at Open House. As was made clear by Mr. Jesin’s decision, faculty who do not attend are not failing in assigned work obligations in any manner. Should the College decide in the future that faculty attendance is critical to the success of Open House, we would expect the attendance to be accurately reflected as assigned weekend work on the swf.
Finally, the College’s position as stated in numerous discussions with the union on the subject of Open House has been that it can successfully operate Open House without any full time faculty involvement.