U of T postdoctoral association president Colleen Bell (left) pictured with the postdoc organizing team — Parmbir Gill, Jesse Greener, Robert Ramsay, Vanessa Parlette, Leslie Jermyn & Mikael Swayze — delivering a copy of the certification application to the university administration on July 31, 2009.
After more than two years of hearings and deliberations, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has concluded in a precedent-setting case that postdoctoral fellows at the University of Toronto are employees, thereby having the right to unionize.
“This
decision is a relief and a comfort to the hundreds of postdocs who supported the organizing campaign and signed cards,” said Wayne Dealy, chair of CUPE Local 3902, which serves about 7,000 academic staff members at UofT. “Since we submitted the application, they have been in limbo because of the university’s untenable assertion that these academic staff members are not workers.”
In July 2009 CUPE 3902 applied to the Labour Board for a bargaining unit of postdoctoral fellows. The UofT objected to the application on the grounds that postdocs are “academic trainees,” similar in status to senior graduate students, whose relationship to the university and to their supervisors is not one of employment.
In its ruling last month, the board disagreed, noting it “must be particularly careful to give effect to the substance rather than the form of the relationship.”
Although postdocs benefit from continued learning and mentorship, the board reasoned, this is true of many academic posts. Continuing education and professional development do not preclude an employment relationship. Further, various hallmarks of employment exist, such as remuneration (as opposed to funding), direction and control by a supervisor, and the university’s ability to terminate the engagement, even if it does not classify postdocs as employees or issue their stipends as employment income.
A 2009 report by the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars estimated there are approximately 6,000 postdoctoral fellows in Canada. Bargaining units have been certified at McMaster University, the University of Western Ontario, Queen’s University and the University of Quebec. Certification efforts are underway at other institutions.
Toronto is the first employer to file an objection with a labour board on the basis that postdocs are not employees.
“The board’s decision is great news for postdocs across Canada as it recognizes they are employed academics who have the right to negotiate terms and conditions of their work,” said CAUT president Wayne Peters. “We hope the decision will pave the way for other academic staff associations to organize postdocs.”