The Association of the Teaching Staff of Trent University v. Board of Governors, Trent University
Citation: [1980] OLRB Rep. June 922 File No.: 1594-79-R Date: June 6, 1980
Before: M. G. Mitchnick, Vice-Chairman, and Board Members J. D. Bell and O. Hodges.
Appearances: Edward A. Bartley and Prof David Kettler for the applicant; Ms. Janice A. Baker, Ken Hayes and Robert Chambers for the respondent.
DECISION OF THE BOARD
1This is the continuation of an application for certification. In its decision dated December 18, 1979 the Board certified the applicant on an interim basis, pursuant to its discretion under section 6(la) of The Labour Relations Act, and appointed an Examiner to inquire into the duties and responsibilities of the persons classified as "College Heads". The Board has had an opportunity to review the report of the Examiner, and as well received the submissions of the parties on the report at a hearing scheduled for that purpose.
2There are five separate colleges associated with Trent University, three of them on campus, and two of them located in the City of Peterborough itself. Each college has a "Head" or "Master" appointed by the President. The colleges provide not only a residence for students attending the University, but certain administrative and counseling services as well. The latter are extended to non-residents as well, so that Champlain College, for example, includes within its program some 210 resident students, plus an additional 240 non-resident students. Faculty members are assigned to and associated with the various colleges, but not on a departmental basis. The College Head himself is normally a faculty member, although not necessarily. When a faculty member, the College Head is responsible in an academic sense to the Chairman of the Department in which he actually teaches, and in an administrative sense to the Vice-President. He receives his base salary as a faculty member, plus an increment of $3500.00 Twenty per cent of the base salary is charged to the academic department in which he teaches. Of the remaining salary plus increment, 25% is charged to the College's operating budget and 75% to the student services budget of the University. Unlike Department Chairmen, the College Heads are listed in the calendar as officers of the University.
3The parties agreed that the evidence of Dr. John Burbidge, Head of Champlain College, would be representative of the duties and responsibilities of all of the College Heads at the University. As College Head, Dr. Burbidge has no academic responsibilities, but rather, receives a reduced teaching workload in recognition of his administrative responsibilities. He estimates that his time is split roughly 50-50 between his various academic responsibilities as a faculty member, including attendance at committee meetings, and his administrative responsibilities in running the College.
4Dr. Burbidge testified that there are three main areas of responsibility for the College Head: responsibility for the physical plant itself, which includes being responsible for those people who are maintaining the physical plant and for setting budgets for major maintenance and repair; responsibility for developing a community program which will enhance the overall academic atmosphere of the College; and responsibility for the allocation of offices and secretarial staff to faculty members serving as Fellows of the College. The College does not itself offer academic courses for credit.
5There are three types of operating accounts with which the College Head is associated. The first covers the area of the dining hall services. Dr. Burbidge indicated that while he has responsibility for that area, in fact the responsibility is delegated to someone else, so that he has minimal supervision in that area. The second is the area of the college operating account, which includes a large amount of support staff salaries. Dr. Burbidge has no control over the budgeted amount for those salaries. He does, however, have discretionary input into amounts budgeted for major plant maintenance and repair projects. The third area is the student activities budget, which is made up of a per capita student levy, plus endowments or gifts to the college fund. Dr. Burbidge has wide discretion in the allocation of these funds.
6As a faculty member, Dr. Burbidge from time to time sits on various committees which may affect the employment conditions of faculty members, but he has no special input in this regard as a College Head. As a College Head, he is a member of the Senate, but not the Board of Governors. His input is solicited annually on questions of promotions or special increments for faculty members within his college, but it appears that he is simply one of many sources consulted in this regard. He also sits on a sub-committee of the Senate referred to as the Committee on Colleges. The composition of this committee includes faculty members and students as well. He has no authority whatever to take any disciplinary or other negative action against a faculty member.
7Clearly, the major area of responsibility of the College Head, for the purposes of this application, is the area of support staff for the college. It is made up essentially of secretaries and housekeeping staff. In connection with secretarial staff, all of the current secretaries have been at Champlain College for a considerable period of time, so that Dr. Burbidge has not had to become involved in hiring any of them. As mentioned, he is responsible for assigning secretaries to faculty members, but beyond that there is of course no need for him to make daily assignments of work. Dr. Burbidge is responsible for ensuring that vacations are taken in a manner which will maintain coverage, although it appears that this problem tends to sort itself out. If, however, there are complaints by faculty members about a secretary's work, Dr. Burbidge indicates that it is up to him to "move in in a disciplinary way". In addition, Dr. Burbidge has direct responsibility over the porter of the college, the head housekeeper, and the full housekeeping staff, comprised of some 12 or 13 persons, and he regularly oversees and inspects their work. The hiring of persons to fill these positions is ultimately the decision of Dr. Burbidge, although he would never do this without being in consultation with the Personnel Office. Dr. Burbidge did, in fact, perform this responsibility in hiring the present head housekeeper, as the former head housekeeper resigned on the day that Dr. Burbidge became College Head. In addition, it is his responsibility to hire and supervise the "college secretary" (as opposed to the academic secretaries), and his own assistant. It is difficult to determine from the evidence what discretion the College Head has with respect to salaries for the above persons. It is clear that the College Head is confined by the budgeted amount for salaries, and he does not have the authority to move funds from other accounts into the salary account. However, Dr. Burbidge testified that when he asks Personnel questions of policy relating to promotions or salary increments, he normally is told: "Whatever you think you can do". With respect to his own assistant, it is clear that Dr. Burbidge decides at what level in a fixed range he is to be paid. Dr. Burbidge makes formal recommendations to Personnel at the end of the probationary period for support staff, and these recommendations have always been accepted. He has the authority to take disciplinary action with respect to the support staff, although he indicates that he would never fire someone without, again, consulting with Personnel. He can authorize overtime, and has granted time off on his own to support staff, for example, at Christmas time.
8Normally, the College Head sits on three committees directly related to the administration of the college. The first is the College Council, which is a meeting of all the Fellows and Dons of the College where general policy affecting the college is discussed. The second is the College Executive, composed of six members of the College Council, plus a number of student appointees. Dr. Burbidge indicated that in his normal operating of the college, it is the College Executive which makes policy decisions on behalf of the College, because of the Executive's representative nature. He indicates, however, that he has the ultimate authority to exercise his own discretion and not take the advice of the committee, though he adds that it would be generally unwise politically to do so. He has in fact done that only once. The final committee is the Residents Council, which is a representative group of the students of the residences together with their Dons, whose purpose is to discuss questions of residence policy.
9From the above, it can be seen that the College Head has little input into decisions which affect other members of the faculty. He has significant responsibilities in the area of student programmes and development, but such areas obviously have limited labour relations implications. The important area, clearly, is the College Head's role as chief administrator of the college, and his substantial responsibility for the support staff in that regard. The support staff are, of course, not a part of the applicant's bargaining unit. The Board has decided, however, that the exclusion under section 1(3)(b) of The Labour Relations Act does not require that managerial responsibilities be exercised in connection with the particular bargaining unit being examined. See Globe and Mail Limited, [1976] OLRB Rep. Nov. 662, at paragraph 13. This issue was considered as well in some of the earlier decisions involving university faculty bargaining units, and the Board has carefully reviewed those decisions, as requested by the applicant. In both the Carleton University case, [1975] OLRB Rep. June 500 and the University of Windsor case, [1977] OLRB Rep. May 300, the Board held that the infrequent exercise of authority by Department Chairmen over the support staff in their department was not sufficient, in itself, to justify the Chairmen's exclusion from the bargaining unit, particularly since the support staff formed no part of that bargaining unit. In saying this, however, the Board noted in the Carleton University case in particular, at paragraph 23:
"It is important to emphasize that the overwhelming proportion of the Chairmen's duties have nothing whatever to do with the supervision or control of the department's small clerical staff'.
Overall, the Board in that case decided, also at paragraph 23:
"We cannot conclude that Departmental Chairmen perform functions sufficiently different from those of their departmental colleagues to warrant their exclusion from the bargaining unit."
The Board finds, however, that the same cannot be said for the College Heads which are the subject of examination in the present case. They are effectively charged with the running of the college, from an administrative and supervisory point of view, and this aspect of their responsibilities occupies a full 50% of their university time. Accordingly, the Board finds that the College Heads of the respondent do exercise managerial functions within the meaning of section l(3)(b) of The Labour Relations Act, and accordingly are excluded from the applicant's bargaining unit.
10The Board therefore finds that all faculty and professional librarian appointments at Trent University in Peterborough, save and except sessional faculty and professional librarian appointments teaching one and one-half courses or less, or the equivalents, the President, Vice-Presidents, Deans, Associate Deans, Registrar, Associate Registrars, Assistant to the President, College Heads, either the University librarian or the Director of the library, faculty members on the Board of Governors, and faculty and professional librarian appointments employed at Trent University for a term of two years or less while on leave from other employers, constitute a unit of employees of the respondent appropriate for collective bargaining.
11A formal certificate will now issue to the applicant.