xclusives

EDITOR SCOTT FORBES

THE VOICE, FRIDAY, DEC. 2, 2016 3

Blurred lines:
LSU doc in focus

Agreement includes irregular benefits for staff

By ALYSE KOTYK

n 2012, the Langara Students’ Union
signed a new collective agreement —
a legal contract establishing working
conditions — for its staff members.
After LSU general manager, Desmond
Rodenbour was fired, The Voice looked
at this collective agreement to see if
anything was out of the ordinary.
Collective agreements are negotiated
between management
and employees within
a union. Management
is usually responsible
for hiring, firing and
outlining job descrip-
Ations for union mem-
bers. However, within
the LSU’s collective

DESMOND
RODENBOUR agreement, the line
Former LSU between management

General Managerhas become blurry,
according to Roden-
bour who said this

r4 4 lack of clarity can
lead to issues.

It doesn’t “T just think that a
healthy collective

make fe ora agreement would

particular- have fairly clear lines
of what is the role of

ly healthy management, what is
relation- the role of staff,” he

hi said Thursday. “In the
siip absence of those clear

lines, those things get

blurred. I don’t think

it’s necessarily anybody’s fault but it

doesn’t make for a particularly healthy
relationship.”

In the case of the LSU, these include

employees being able to play a role in

hiring new staff members, ending staff

probationary periods and creating or
changing job descriptions. For example,
the LSU’s collective agreement says
that job descriptions can’t be changed
“without the mutual agreement of the
staff.”

In other areas, the LSU collective
agreement has some benefits for staff
that are not in student union collective
agreements at other post-secondary in-
stitutions. For example, LSU staff mem-
bers are entitled to a number of paid
holidays including International Wom-
en’s Day, two floating holidays and time
off between Dec. 22 to Jan. 1, inclusive.
In total, this adds up to 23 days of paid
time off in addition to the three weeks
of paid vacation that employees receive
in their first year of employment. While
they all vary, Kwantlen University,
Douglas College and UBC’s student
unions all offer fewer paid holiday days
for their staff.

Another specific point in the LSU’s
collective agreement includes payment
of wages if a staff members goes to jail
for something they have done on behalf
of the LSU. The agreement states that
“the staff member will be entitled to
leave with no loss in salary, seniority or
benefits” while they are in court or in
jail. This entitlement does not seem to
appear in Kwantlen, Douglas College or
UBC unions’ collective agreements.

Rodenbour said that he is not against
unionized staff, but that a collective
agreement only works when it’s clear
and supports the goals of the student
union for the student body.

“IT don’t see anything wrong with a
unionized staff of a student union,” he
said. “I think that a collective agree-
ment can be the best document when
the management has a deep vision.”

Executive Salaries in Student
U nions Across Canada *LSU salaries are not made public

CONTRACT
facts

COLLECTIVE
AGREEMENT

A legal contract establish-
ing working conditions
for union members.

VACATION TIME

Staff receives 23 paid
holiday days plus three
weeks of paid vacation.

JAIL PAY

Staff is still paid if they
are sent to jail for an act
they did at the request of
the LSU.

AGREEMENT TERM
Agreement runs from
Dec. 1, 2012 to Nov. 30,
2017.

CUPE 15

CUPE 15 is the

overarching union
representative of the LSU.

Source: LSU-CUPE 15
Collective Agreement

University of
Waterloo(FEDS)

Western University(USC)

University of Calgary(UCSU)

University of
Manitoba(UMSU)

University of Alberta(UASU)
McMaster University(MSU)

Ryerson University(RSU)

University of
Saskatchewan(USSU)

York University(YFS)

University of Ottawa (SFUO)

University of British
Columbia(AMS)

Queen's University(AMS)
University of Toronto(UTSU)
Concordia University(CSU)
McGill University (SSMU)

University of Victoria(UVSS)

Oo

$10000

$20000 |

$30000

$40000

F soarom

SEAN HITREC photo
The B.C. Societies Act is a 119-page document that was recently amended in
an attempt to increase transparency in student unions.

New Societies
Act now in effect

LSU calls special meeting
to invoke bylaw changes to
lengthen directors’ term of
service to Dec. 2017

By SEAN HITREC

all of the provinces’ students

unions was recently amended in or-
der to improve transparency, said NDP
MLA David Eby.

Eby, the Advanced Education critic,
said a presentation was made by Langa-
ra journalism students and others in
April 2016 calling for student societies
like the LSU to be included in the Free-
dom of Information Act.

The FOI Act allows the public to re-
quest copies of records held by B.C. gov-
ernment ministries when those records
are not routinely available.

“They were calling for the Societies
Act to include a provision related to
Freedom of Information,” Eby said
Thursday. “Their argument was that in
order to improve transparency in the

T: B.C. Societies Act that governs

operations of student unions, which
control a significant amount of money
and don’t have the greatest track re-
cord.”

Langara has one of those student
unions, according to Eby.

The new amendments to the B.C. So-
cieties Act took ef-
fect just recently on r4 4
Nov. 28. The newly-

elected Langara Student

Students’ Union °

have called a spe- Unions

cial general meet- [...] con-

ing for Dec. 7. Under trola

a special resolution, . pe

the LSU announced Stgnificant

it wants te “alter amount of
e annual election

cycle.” money and
It also states that don’t have

it is in “LSU’s best _

interests that the the 9 reat

term for each of its eSt track

current directorsbe ypeeord

extended until De-

cember 31st, 2017.” DAVID EBY
The Dec. 7 meet- NDP ADVANCED

ing must be attend-
ed by a minimum of
50 student members or the bylaw

EDUCATION CRITIC

BYLAWS, continued from page 1

First, the union is presenting a mo-
tion to include Langara’s over 4,400 con-
tinuing studies students as members of
the LSU.

This move will give these students ac-
cess to the U-Pass B.C. program and the
LSU Health and Dental plan. But it’s
also charging these students the LSU’s
full gamut of student fees.

Second, the group is putting forward
a motion to alter the election cycle of
the union to change the date that new
directors would take office using the
calendar year. Such a change would pre-

vent students enrolled in a one-year
program from running for the board of
directors. In the process, the change
will extend current board member’s
terms to Dec. 31, 2017.

Third, the union wants to change the
way newly elected directors are trained,
including providing elected officers and
advisors of the society a four-week sti-
pend of an undisclosed amount before
they take office.

Rodenbour, in Tuesday’s edition of
The Voice said he had no part in draft-
ing the proposed changes, saying that
they were written after his termination
from his post at the LSU.