We are pleased to announce that on June 29, 2026, the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board (FPSLREB) issued its decision on our Policy Grievance and Unfair Labour Practice Complaint over the increases to our class sizes and teaching workload in 2024, following the announcement of the budget cuts.

The decision will be posted to the FPSLREB website once translated, and we will link to it here when it is. In the meantime, you can find a copy of the English version of the decision here. Here is an overview of the decision:

• The Board declared unequivocally that the Employer was incorrect not to consider class sizes in assessing workloads. Unlike the Employer, who tried to argue that Article 13 provides no real guardrails on class size, the Board stated that even an increase of three students could be material, depending on the other factors listed in Article 13 to be considered when assessing teaching workload (para. 57).
• The Board declared that the Employer violated the statutory freeze on terms and conditions of employment during bargaining and committed an unfair labour practice by departing from its practice regarding bilingual instruction. They did this by counting combined French and English courses as only a single courseload, even when there was a sufficient number of students on the French and the English side to recognize each as a courseload.

In addition, on the matter of Management’s unilateral decision to cut term UT positions and not to fill indeterminate UT vacancies, the Board agrees with the CMCFA that vacancy levels are a condition of employment that can fall within the scope of joint consultation (Article 26 of the collective agreement), and not a staffing matter that falls outside of the CA, as the Employer argued. However, the Board decided that the subjects of consultation must be agreed to in advance before the duty to consult under Article 26 is triggered, so we will ensure that we establish those subjects in advance, going forward.

Finally, the Board also agreed to the CMCFA’s request to “bifurcate” the remedy from the decision on liability. This means that the Board’s decision about the appropriate remedy for the Employer’s breaches of the Collective Agreement and the statutory freeze on terms and conditions will come later. Once we receive that decision from the Board, we will communicate with you again.

Once again, we want to thank everyone who came forward about these violations in 2024, as well as those who helped us in parsing the Employer’s data on enrolment and teaching plans for our arguments. Thanks to you, we have strengthened our rights around teaching workload, which is a great part of our working conditions as UTs.

Please address your questions or comments to the CMCFA President, Sylvain (Sly) Leblanc, at leblanc@cmcfa-apcmc.ca.

In solidarity,

The CMCFA President