(Sudbury – Feb. 6, 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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As most of you may have heard, LUFA recently received an arbitration decision regarding the employment contracts and leave for the former President, Dominic Giroux. As LUFA previously reported, we received questions 18 months ago regarding a rumour that Mr. Giroux had been granted a special leave and had not resigned from the university despite public statements that suggested the contrary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite repeated requests during the summer and fall of 2017, the administration provided no response to the questions regarding the status of Mr. Giroux\u2018s relationship with the University. Consequently, LUFA became concerned that there was a secret deal that had been negotiated. We proceeded with a grievance in December 2017. The first day of the hearing was scheduled for May 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parties flew to\nToronto and on the morning of the hearing the administration indicated that\nthey could not proceed because they had not provided the required notice to Mr.\nGiroux and others. In their view Mr. Giroux and other parties were entitled to\nattend the hearing. As a result, the hearing was adjourned at a significant financial\ncost to LUFA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The administration\nalso requested that LUFA seek the information through the Freedom of\nInformation (FOI) legislation instead of the Collective Agreement. Although\nLUFA had negotiated language for the expeditious exchange of information, we\nagreed to follow the FOI process, which is lengthier, on a without prejudice and\nwithout precedent basis. This would allow the parties to resolve the legal\ndispute regarding the need to make these requests through the CA rather than\nthrough provincial legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LUFA filed a freedom\nof information request for access to Mr. Giroux\u2019s employment contract. While\nthe administration disclosed the standard contracts they did not disclose the\ndocuments that outlined the terms of Mr. Giroux\u2019s leave. In the summer of 2018,\nLUFA received copies of these contracts. In December 2018, LUFA was informed by the employer that the former president was on an unpaid leave of\nindeterminate length with the right to return as a full professor in the\nbargaining unit and upon return would be entitled to a one year paid\nadministrative leave. While the administration provided LUFA with these details\nthey refused to disclose any documents which outlined these terms and\nconditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The arbitration proceeded on December 13 and Arbitrator Larry Steinberg rendered his decision on January 11 (attached). The administration argued that, since they have provided some of the terms to LUFA, the issue was now moot (a legal argument that can be made by either party, which alleges that there is no labour relations purpose to proceed given that the remedy was provided). LUFA argued that the matter was not moot because the parties still had a policy dispute as to whether the information could be accessed through the Collective Agreement instead of an FOI request. The arbitrator chose not to answer the question and decided that the matter was in fact moot. LUFA will have to resubmit a request through the CA and have the matter re-litigated in the future or dealt with through bargaining. Essentially the administration delayed the argument to another day, adding more cost to the process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LUFA is dismayed with\nthe lack of transparency that has resulted in lengthy and costly legal\nprocedures to access what should be public information. In addition, the\nadministration has refused to share the correspondence outlining the terms and\nconditions of the former president\u2019s possible return to Laurentian University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The special deal for\nMr. Giroux is disappointing given the administration\u2019s comments on austerity\nand the need to cut services and staff complement. LUFA is also concerned about\nthe negative impact on the Faculty of Management\u2019s complement given that a tenured\nposition must be held for him. LUFA intends to file a grievance challenging\nwhat we view as the improper granting of this leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are\nurging the Board of Governors to disclose the terms and conditions of Mr.\nGiroux\u2019s leave as well as to develop a more transparent model of the\nappointment process, including terms and conditions, for Senior Academic\nAdministrators. LUFA is in the process of reviewing the contracts of Mr. Giroux\nand other Senior Administrators, who appear to have been given special deals\ninconsistent with LU policies and the Collective Agreement. LUFA has filed\nseveral grievances with respect to the lack of collegiality and transparency. Despite\nsome recent gains (see the attached decision from Arbitrator Burkett) we must\ncontinue to grieve to ensure compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Sudbury – Feb. 6, 2019) As most of you may have heard, LUFA recently received an arbitration decision regarding the employment contracts and leave for the former President, Dominic Giroux. As LUFA previously reported, we Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":915,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-french"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lufappul.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}