New Brunswick is being ordered to rescind layoff notices issued to library workers in three school districts.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the workers, filed complaints with New Brunswick’s Labour and Employment Board.
In a ruling issued last week, the board said the province failed to bargain in good faith by not disclosing government decisions that impacted the negotiation process.
Dozens of library workers in the Anglophone South, Anglophone West and Francophone South school districts were laid off near the end of the last school year.
The province had told districts to redirect $43 million of their budgets back into classrooms.
Jessica Hanlon with the Anglophone South School District said at the time they feel library workers’ skill sets could be better used in other functions of the school, such as in administrative assistant positions.
“Library worker positions are not instructional and do not directly impact student learning or literacy development. Library worker roles are clerical support roles,” Hanlon wrote in an email to our newsroom in early June.
“As many schools have shifted to classroom-based book collections and Learning Commons models, schools no longer have traditional library tasks.”
The province later reallocated an additional $14.6 million to the school districts for the current fiscal year, but there was no expectation that the districts would reverse the cuts.
“You’ll have to ask them what they’re planning to do, but to my knowledge, no, there were no plans to bring them back,” Education Minister Claire Johnson said about the laid-off employees.
“We’re really looking at having the resources close to the classroom with regards to literacy and numeracy.”
Provincial officials are reportedly reviewing the decision before deciding whether to seek a judicial review.
