The Mount Allison Faculty Association and university administration are to begin hearings before a conciliation board, the province of New Brunswick has announced.
The Nov. 4 decision by Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Martine Coulombe came after the two sides had already met more than 50 times in face-to-face negotiation, and two months of conciliation with provincial civil servants produced no agreement.
MAFA president Richard Hudson calls the appointment of the board a “waste of time and money,” and questions the ability of a three-person panel to get up-to-speed on the complex issues separating the parties, and produce a report by Jan. 31, the deadline imposed by Minister Coulombe.
“This will only cause a lot of time to be wasted. We’re concerned the deadline won’t be respected,” Hudson said. Any recommendations contained in the report will not bind the parties.
Hudson’s concern follows on the province’s announcement Feb. 18 to also appoint a conciliation board in negotiations between 600 regular University of New Brunswick academic staff and their employer.
No report has been filed in that case, and the parties remain without an agreement. However, Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers president David Bell says that, unlike Mount Allison, the report’s recommendations will be binding because both sides have agreed to abide by the terms.
“The only issues remaining are financial,” Bell said.
New Brunswick is the only province in Canada to appoint conciliation boards in instances of failed collective bargaining discussions, an option granted under the province’s Industrial Relations Act.
MAFA represents 135 regular and 40 contract academic staff at the Sackville university, where enrolment this fall is at an all-time high of 2,500 students.
“Things are good at Mount Allison for the administration,” Hudson said, but noted that burgeoning student numbers have put a strain on the faculty, whose numbers haven’t increased accordingly.
The imposition of the conciliation board into talks between the parties merely gives the administration more time to avoid settling, he charged.
“If we were allowed to get down to hard bargaining and the university could accept they have to pay market wages, we’d be able to reach a deal.”
Negotiations began last May, with the collective agreement expiring on June 30.
Matt Jones, a spokesperson for the department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, confirmed the Mount Allison panel members as chair James Oakley, a labour lawyer based in St. John’s; Eric Durnford Q.C., a lawyer with Ritch Durnford in Halifax; and Chris Ferns, an English professor at Mount Saint Vincent University.
Hudson said the parties haven’t yet met with the panel, but tentative dates are set.