Manitoba must pay $19.4M to U of M profs after court upholds ruling

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This article was published 14/07/2023 (790 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s highest court has rejected the Tory government’s appeal of a $19.4-million award to compensate professors after secretly interfering in bargaining talks, in turn sparking a stalemate that led to a strike on the province’s largest university campus in 2016.

A panel of Manitoba Court of Appeal judges has upheld a February 2022 ruling that ordered the province to pay millions of dollars in damages for illegally inserting itself into contract negotiations between academics and administrators at the University of Manitoba.

The decision, signed by justices Diana Cameron, Janice leMaistre and Holly Beard, is the latest development in a years-long legal saga about wage-freeze directives in the public sector.

“Manitoba alleges that the trial judge made errors of law and of fact in reaching her ($19.4-million) conclusion… I disagree and would dismiss the appeal,” Cameron wrote in the July 13 ruling.

The panel disagreed with the province’s claim that a compensation package should focus on harm caused by its meddling as opposed to the outcome of it.

The government has until the end of September to request a follow-up appeal, should it choose to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In early 2022, Court of King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey concluded the government was on the hook for proposed wage increases that never materialized as a result of officials’ interference and strike-related fees, in addition to interest.

It was in the fall of 2016 when the Progressive Conservatives learned about U of M’s salary proposal for faculty members — an overall increase of seven per cent over four years or a 17.5 per cent hike, when market adjustments were taken into account.

The PC government was concerned the offer, which was on the table after 20 bargaining sessions, could set a precedent. Officials directed the university to settle a one-year agreement with frozen wages and not to disclose where the new mandate came from.

McKelvey said the province’s actions “significantly disrupted” the balance between U of M and UMFA, along with their relationship, and caused notable discord between the faculty association and its members.

“There was a serious and substantial undermining and interference with what had been a meaningful and productive process of collective bargaining,” she wrote, noting the province can play a role in public-sector bargaining, but must do so “honestly, openly and fairly.”

The damages are broken down into: $15 million for one-time payments to faculty members employed between April 2016 and March 2020 to address lost earnings due to interference; a total of $1.6 million for wages lost amid picketing; and $2.7 million to their union for its strike-related expenses.

“It continues to feel really bittersweet,” said Orvie Dingwall, president of the faculty association that represents upwards of 1,200 instructors, librarians and academics.

“This should’ve never happened in the first place and we’re talking about the remedy from having our charter rights violated. Despite (the latest ruling) being in our favour, that’s the dark cloud that continues to loom over us.”

Dingwall said she hopes the province accepts the ruling so the case, which dates back to when she and her colleagues set up a picket line after their employer retracted its wage proposal without explanation almost seven years ago, can finally be put to rest.

A government spokesperson said the province will “thoroughly and carefully review the court’s decision.”

“While the government was entirely successful on the main constitutional issues in the broader litigation, it respects the Court of Appeal’s determination on the much narrower UMFA issues,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement.

The legal battle at-large involves the Manitoba Federation of Labour — which represents UMFA members — and the government of Manitoba.

Union leaders took the PCs to court over the party’s public-sector wage freeze legislation, which was introduced about five months after officials meddled in U of M bargaining talks, and the campus-specific issue.

The government won a 2021 appeal that overturned a local judge’s 2020 ruling condemning its mandate that all new contracts begin with a two-year salary freeze, followed by annual increases of 0.75 per cent and one per cent.

The Supreme Court dismissed the MFL’s application for leave to appeal the latter decision in October.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie