Employer provided no access to computer, other work tools
AFTER a personnel dispute surfaced among members of the office staff at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., one of the professors was moved out of her current office into a new one in a different building.
Adele Mercier worked as a philosophy department professor since 1992. Her former office was located on the third floor of Watson Hall, which
was where all other department professors were housed.
But on Oct. 29, 2013, Mercier was advised via letter from Susan Mumm, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, that “both office staff members in the department have indicated that they feel unsafe in your presence and do not wish to have direct communications with you.”
The workers didn’t fear a physical threat but instead they reported feeling “psychologically unsafe,” according to a report by Heather Shields, non-faculty labour relations.
Because those staff members could not move out of the building due to their positions, Mercier was relocated to Mackintosh-Corry Hall on Nov. 1.
She replied to the notice that, “based on no evidence,” she was declared “persona non grata in my own department.”
As well, said Mercier, the actions were done “without regard to the irreparable harm that it will do to my professional and personal reputation.”
After the move, Mercier discovered she had no access to a fax machine, scanner, printer, photocopier, blackboards or computer.
On Nov. 5, she requested the tools but was told by Dean Smith that “there are limits to the assistance we can provide and your most recent email exceeds those limits.”
Eventually, Mercier was given access to the tools of the global development studies department, but only during business hours.
Mercier was also not given access to a room to tutor students or a kitchen.
Mercier took time off for sick leave on Nov. 26. Her office contents (which included three armchairs, three standing lamps, a large table with eight chairs, two large bookshelves and a large blackboard) were not moved to the new building. Mercier was off work until Oct. 29, 2014.
A grievance was filed by the Queen’s University Faculty Association (QUFA) on Nov. 26. QUFA argued that the employer failed to give Mercier proper consideration when moving her and it didn’t explore other alternatives before making such a drastic imposition.
It asked for $60,000 in general damages and $5,000 in punitive damages. As well, the university breached the collective agreement when it withheld access to the various
work tools. And the employer unfairly harmed Mercier’s reputation, said the association.
After an investigation, Mercier was not found to be a security threat to her two colleagues in December 2015.
Arbitrator Kevin Burkett upheld the grievance.
“I have found on an objective test that the university acted under article 22 of the collective agreement in forcing the relocation of professor Mercier and banning her from the department premises but that, in doing so, it failed to comply with the employee protections contained in that article. However, if I am somehow in error in this regard, I have also
found that if it acted under article 8.1 of the collective agreement, as it asserts, the university failed to exercise its management rights in a manner that was fair and equitable, as required under article 8.1, not in regard to mandating the separation nor in deciding that it was professor Mercier who had to alter her work arrangements, but in regard to the manner in which it effected the separation as it impacted professor Mercier.”
As well, the university “did not exercise its management rights fairly and equitably in its treatment of professor Mercier after it had decided to effect a separation between her and the two support staff members pending an investigation of their cross-complaints and after it had decided that it was professor Mercier who would have to alter her work arrangements,” said Burkett.
Queen’s was ordered to pay $20,000 in general damages and a further $5,000 in punitive damages to Mercier.
Reference: Queen’s University and Queen’s University Faculty Association. Kevin Burkett — arbitrator. Alan Whyte for the employer. Cathy Lace for the employee. June 10, 2019. 2019 CarswellOnt 10459
