Noah Sarna on the issues, cases and events of interest to British Columbia's educational community
Posts tagged labour relations
BCCA favours BCTF in class size grievance against school employers
Apr 6th
The BC Court of Appeal has released its decision (CanLII) in another round of litigation over class sizes between the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA), setting aside the original arbitration and court decisions and sending the matter back to the initial arbitration stage with some guidance. Essentially, the court sided with the BCTF, which has claimed the victory.
Here is the BCPSEA’s take on the decision, which includes a fairly comprehensive backgrounder and overview of the judgment. Here is the BCTF’s press release. Here is coverage from the Vancouver Sun’s education reporter, Janet Steffenhagen, on the decision; scroll to the bottom of the page to review some of the public comments.
Class size has been a hotly contested issue between teachers and their employers in public schools for many years (see here for another post on the subject). This most recent decision of the BC Court of Appeal serves to further refine the meaning of the provisions on class size added to the School Act (BCLaws). See here, here, here, here, and here (CanLII) for a sampling of decisions dealing with these provisions.
UBC succeeds in closing the door on teacher evaluation complaint of faculty association
Nov 25th
The Supreme Court of Canada announced this morning that it has dismissed with costs the application of the University of British Columbia Faculty Association for leave to appeal to the high court the decision (CanLII) of the BC Court of Appeal regarding the policy of the UBC Senate on teaching evaluations. The Faculty Association had claimed that the policy violated its collective agreement with the university and brought the matter before arbitration. The arbitrator concluded that he did not have jurisdiction over the policy (see here for a previous post on the subject).
This is the second time in the past couple of years that the Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed with costs an application of the Faculty Association for leave to appeal – see here (CanLII). The facts of the matter, as set out in the decision (CanLII) of the BC Court of Appeal, involve the recommendation of the UBC President not to promote a particular professor. It appears the Faculty Association and UBC square off fairly regularly before the Labour Relations Board.
