A labour arbitrator has ruled there was no meaningful consultation with the union over layoffs before Aurora College’s 19 community learning centres were closed.
The Union of Northern Workers was told on December 20, 2024 that the college’s board of governors had decided to close the learning centres, also known as CLCs. (Employees and the public were told a month later.)
The union filed a grievance in early January, saying the move had been presented as a final decision – affecting more than 30 people’s jobs – when the collective agreement required the employer to “consult meaningfully on alternatives to workforce reduction.”
“Having a meeting after the decision has already been made does not constitute meaningful consultation,” the union alleged.
“Meeting with the union after the decision has been made to reduce the workforce and dates set to deliver notices is both insincere and hollow.”
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The employer – technically the territorial government in this case – said closing the CLCs was a business decision made by the college’s board that didn’t require union consultation. The extent of consequent layoffs was still to be determined when the union was consulted, the GNWT said.
In a ruling issued in late August but only recently made available online, arbitrator Thomas Jolliffe sided with the union.
Jolliffe said layoffs appeared to be an “unavoidable consequence” of closing the CLCs and there “was no real informed discussion available” over the possibility of placing people elsewhere.
By the time the union and employer met in mid-January, Jolliffe wrote, the evidence suggests the employer knew “with absolute certainty that there were going to be numerous layoffs” and was not meaningfully discussing alternatives.
“In my view it was a faulty approach,” he wrote.
The community learning centres closed at the end of June this year. The GNWT has since set out what it calls an “interim solution” to help northerners in small communities access further education.
