First contract negotiated despite tense bargaining
During negotiations for a first union contract at the Islamic Foundation School (IFS) in Toronto, the school’s principal advised the union that the tuition benefit would soon be discounted.
The benefit had been in place since the formation of the school in 1998. It offered teachers a 50 per cent reduction to the $450-per-month rate the school charged.
But on Sept. 8, 2017, Syed Akbar Warsi, vice-president, sent an email to all teachers. “Br Akbar has asked me to inform you that the 50 per cent staff discount offered to IFS teachers with children in the school is currently under union negotiations.”
Jehan Ahamed, union representative with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada (UFCW), Local 175, received an emailed response on Sept. 20 to another contract proposal that said, “Teacher’s children will pay the same school fees like other parents. No discounts.”
The employer said the IFS was losing about $33,000 per month because of declining enrolment and it needed to trim costs.
During negotiations on Sept. 21, Warsi said he wanted “the teachers to feel the same pain as the parent.”
When the union responded negatively, Warsi claimed he was “only joking.”
The issue of one teacher who was charged the full fee for tuition was raised and the employer said it was a mistake and it would be rectified.
Ahamed testified that the tuition issue was not discussed any further and he interpreted this as meaning the employer had backed off on its initials demands and the issue was no longer raised during the remainder of the bargaining talks.
An agreement was reached on the first contract on Oct. 24, after a mediator stepped in. The contact was ratified on Nov. 3 and it was signed by both parties on Nov. 9.
But on Nov. 29, an email was sent to all teachers that said, “As of Dec. 1 (unionized) teachers will be charged fees of $450 per child.”
The union grieved the decision and asked for the employer to be estopped from ending the benefit without agreement from the union.
The UFCW argued because the benefit was offered at the IFS’s Ajax, Ont., campus, the employer discriminated against those teachers at the Toronto campus.
The employer argued that the Nov. 29 letter constituted clear notice and it should therefore be able to institute a new policy, and because the tuition benefit was not added into the collective agreement, it no longer applied.
Arbitrator Ian Anderson upheld the grievance and ordered the “employer to make whole any affected teacher for the difference between the tuition which they paid and the tuition which they would have paid but for the employer’s breach.”
“I conclude the employer’s decision to eliminate the tuition benefit for the teachers at the Scarborough Campus was made to discriminate against them on the basis of their membership in the union, contrary to Article 5.01 of the collective agreement.”
The “misleading” letter sent to teachers and Warsi’s comments during bargaining offered clear evidence that the employer discriminated against the teachers, said Anderson.
“The context for this statement includes Warsi’s comment during collective bargaining that he wanted these teachers to ‘feel the pain’ through the removal of the tuition benefit, and the fact the tuition benefit continues to be offered to the non-unionized teachers at the Durham Campus,” said Anderson.
“Taken together, these facts are capable of supporting the inference that termination of the tuition benefit for the Scarborough teachers was motivated at least in part by the fact they were unionized,” said Anderson.
Reference: Islamic Foundation School and United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada, Local 175. Ian Anderson — arbitrator. Shazed Siddiqui for the employer. Georgina Watts for the employee. May 30, 2018.
