For the second time this year, Capilano University has been served with strike notice by its employees.
Members of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, local 378, informed the administration they would be withdrawing all overtime services from the school starting just after 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The two sides have just one scheduled mediation session remaining.
At issue in the job action are benefits, language over layoffs, sick leave, minimum hours worked and termination of employees on leave, according to the union.
It comes at a busy time of year for the registrar’s office staff who are working to get students slotted in for the fall semester, said Sage Aaron, COPE 378 communications director.
“It’s actually a bit more administrative-heavy during summer because it’s an opportunity to kind of prep the machine for when the students come back,” she said.
Rick Gale, Capilano’s academic vice-president, said he’s confident there won’t be any impacts on the 2,200 students currently taking summer classes or the thousands more who are planning to attend the fall semester.
“There have been times in the past where we needed folks to put in a few extra hours in order to get those registrations prepared. That just isn’t the case this year,” he said. “We’re right on schedule. We anticipate that’s going to be finished this week.”
Employees are also sometimes called upon to work overtime for special events or rare circumstances but with the school’s 2015 convocation done on Friday night and no snowstorms in the forecast, Gale said he isn’t expecting and need for overtime.
The B.C. Labour Relations Board has designated some of what COPE staff do as essential services because withdrawing them would constitute a threat to health and safety.
Should the dispute escalate to a full-blown strike, counsellors for students in distress and lab technicians who must deal with hazardous materials and animals will work minimal hours, and IT and trades staff will be on call for emergencies.
The university is also planning ahead for potential disruptions should COPE members establish picket lines, which faculty will not cross.
“We’re doing everything that we can to make sure those 2,200 students are able to complete their courses. We’re looking at all the contingencies and, so far, I’m pretty confident,” Gale said.
But, Gale added, the dispute between university and the staff ought to be much easier to resolve than the one that caused the Capilano Faculty Association to walk of the job and threaten the spring semester’s final exams.
Teachers and the administration reached a tentative agreement last week.
Both sides say they remain hopeful that the last remaining mediation session set for Friday, will be enough to close the gap between the two sides.
“Our members want to work and they care very much about their university,” Aaron said. “The parties are still talking. That’s always cause for optimism. At the end of the day, I do believe everybody wants to get a collective agreement. That’s the best thing for the people who work at Cap and for the institution.”
