Policy Grievance on Class Size

To All KFA Members,

I am writing to inform you that the KFA filed a new grievance on class size violation today.

Yesterday, in our KFA-KPU Labour Management Relations Committee (LMRC) meeting, the KFA were informed that the “registration maximum will be set over the registration limit” for Arts and Business courses for Summer 2018, and the Employer acknowledged this “change of practice” may result in sections exceeding the class size limits specified in the KPU-KFA Collective Agreement. The change will be an over-enrollment of 2 students for courses that normally would be under 30, and 3 students for courses normally 30 or over. This over-enrollment may start as soon as tomorrow.

The KFA were not consulted on this move but rather were simply informed yesterday that it would be taking place. The Employer did not engage or collaborate with the Union to address the issues caused by the lack of a coherent enrollment strategy.

Rationale

The Employer rationalized this action on the bases that

• there are too many international students who have not been able to enroll in classes, and
• there are issues with registration that do not allow students to add and drop classes efficiently enough to ensure full classes

We do not agree that these reasons justify over-enrolling course sections. We would suggest managers need to address these issues in ways that do not require violating our Collective Agreement class size provisions.

Bargaining History

This issue and general course of action were brought to the KFA in bargaining in 2013. At that time, bargaining was not successfully concluded on this matter. And yet, the Employer now has chosen to act unilaterally and simply impose it on the KFA membership.

Union Position

We say this is wrong, and we assert the Employer is acting in bad faith. The Employer unilaterally imposing this measure is an outright undermining of our rights in the Collective Agreement as union members.

The KFA has filed a formal grievance on this matter today, and we will be vigorously undertaking all avenues of opposition to the Employer’s action, including but not limited to the formal grievance process.

What you can do

We need to hear from you if your sections are over-enrolled. We need to know:

• Your course(s) and section number(s) affected
• How many students are over-enrolled as per class size in the course outline
• How many students you have as of May 12 (the stable enrollment date)

Thanks in advance for any help you can give us with this. I will keep you informed as to the progress of the grievance.

In solidarity,

Diane.