Osgoode Labour & Employment Law Society

The CUPE and York labour disruption is about to go into its third week, and for some Shulich students, and possibly all Osgoode students, the end may be in sight.

For Shulich students, the York University senate granted an exemption for classes to resume for exchange students returning to their home countries in January, and for Shulich students embarking on an exchange in January.  Why?  If these students aren’t able to complete their term on time, they may either lose their present term, or have to abandon their exchange next term.  The official word:

“These are two cohorts of students who would suffer irreparable damage if they can’t start classes again,” said vice-president Sheila Embleton. “They either would have to abandon their course at the end of December and go back home, or stay here into January and abandon their next term at home.

“And 88 of the York students going on exchange are in the International Bachelor of Business Administration program, which requires that they spend a term abroad.” If these students don’t go on exchange this year, they would have to join next year’s cohort, which Embleton said universities abroad might find tough to handle.

Also note that if these iBBA students are in their fourth year, then Winter 2009 is the last chance they’ll get to conduct this exchange, which is presumably required for graduation (forcing these students into a hypothetical 5th year just to do their exchange would surely constitute undue hardship).  Consequently, Shulich professors will have to teach these classes twice – once for the exchange students, and once for everyone else once the strike ends.  And as you can imagine, CUPE is none too happy with the situation:

“This is really problematic; the university should not be making an exception for professional programs,” said CUPE official Punam Khosla. “Essentially the university can’t decide whether they’re coming or going.  They should just bargain.”

Speaking of other professional programs, Osgoode students may find themselves back in class as of December 1st.  The law school has proposed a remedial plan that would extend classes through the original exam period (to December 19th), with the new exam period running from January 5th to January 19th.  While this would preserve the length of the academic year, meaning 2Ls and 3Ls can start work without a problem, the victim of this plan are 1Ls: fall grades would not be released until mid-February, meaning 1Ls would be SOL for 1st year OCIs.  As for students who wish to exercise their right not to cross the picket line, Osgoode plans to audio record all lectures and offer alternate exam and assignment due dates, once the strike has ended.  Similarly, 1L courses which employ CUPE members would remain suspended for the duration of the strike.  However it must be stressed that this is only a proposal which is subject to York University senate approval.

The reason for Osgoode being granted an exemption would be similar to the reason Schulich was granted one: any extension of the school year would have devastating effects on law students’ ability to obtain summer jobs.  These jobs are often necessary to obtain articling positions, which in themselves require a certain number of hours to complete.  In the past Osgoode has held classes off campus to avoid extending the school year, but unlike then, this time the union has not agreed not to picket the off campus location.  As a result, there are concerns that classes could not be conducted with academic integrity.

Update:  See Prof. Doorey’s blog for a discussion about crossing picket lines in light of an “exemption”.