‘Collective bargaining depends on candour and transparency,’ says vice-chair
A Saskatchewan community college has been found to have committed an unfair labour practice when it reassigned disputed programming duties to a managerial position the union had agreed to exclude from the bargaining unit, without disclosing the change until months later.
In a decision issued Nov. 25, 2025, vice-chairperson Carol Kraft of the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board found Carlton Trail Community College breached its duty to bargain in good faith after it moved Adult Basic Education credit programming responsibilities to the student supports and engagement manager position in October 2024, despite having provided a job description in April that didn't include those duties.
The union had agreed to provisionally exclude the SSE Manager based on the original position summary. When the union later discovered the reassignment through a forwarded internal email, not from the employer, it filed an unfair labour practice complaint.
The provisional agreement that backfired
In April 2024, Carlton Trail Community College initiated an organizational restructuring, proposing six new out-of-scope managerial positions. The college notified the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees' Union on April 9, providing job descriptions and organizational charts.
After negotiations, the parties signed a Letter of Understanding in June 2024, agreeing to exclude four positions. Two were excluded permanently, while two others, including the SSE Manager, were excluded provisionally for one year.
The union specifically opposed excluding a different position, the Strategic Enrolment and Foundational Learning Manager, because that role included ABE credit programming duties currently performed by in-scope employee Darlene Purshega. The Board's interim order in July 2024 denied the SEFL Manager's exclusion.
When duties moved without notice
Following the interim order, the college faced workload pressures due to international recruitment efforts. Rachel Trann, the ABE and student services director who had been performing SEFL Manager duties, delegated the ABE credit responsibilities to Nicole Kinzel, the newly appointed SSE manager, beginning in October 2024.
The college characterized this as a temporary operational necessity. Staff received an email on Sept. 27, 2024, announcing the shift. The union learned of the change only when a shop steward forwarded the message.
Kathy Mahussier, a union labour relations officer, testified she would not have agreed to the SSE manager's provisional exclusion had she known the college intended to reassign ABE credit responsibilities to that position. The duties represented roughly two-thirds of Purshega's former workload.
Why silence broke the bargaining obligation
The Board emphasized that disclosure obligations don't end when agreements are signed.
"Collective bargaining depends on candour and transparency," Kraft wrote. "When circumstances change in a way that alters prior representations, the employer has a duty to disclose those changes and engage the union before implementation."
The Board cited established principles: "In collective bargaining, the parties are expected to engage in full, rational, and informed discussion about the relevant issues. To promote such discussion, the Board must recognize a duty, in some cases, to provide unsolicited disclosure."
The Board ordered the college to cease reassigning duties subject to unresolved scope disputes without notifying and consulting the union, and to post the decision at all worksites for 30 days. The Board noted: "Failure to do so deprives the union of a meaningful opportunity to assess the implications and erodes the trust essential to effective labour relations
