ATHABASCA – Just over a week after Athabasca University’s (AU) Board of Governors voted to officially end its contentious “near virtual” policy and all it entailed, the Athabasca University Faculty Association (AUFA) said it’s excited to hear the employer talk about choice.
The board voted to end the policy during its Dec. 8 meeting — minutes from the meeting were not posted as of Dec. 15 — in a move that left the local community feeling optimistic. While staff members are also excited, their reasoning is a little different.
“I was very excited to hear the university talk about choice for employees,” said Dr. Bob Barnetson, AUFA’s president. “The last few years have been very difficult, and the near virtual policy sent many employees home from the office against their will, which was very unfortunate.”
Barnetson, a labour relations professor, said the last few years had been tough on staff. Not only was there a global pandemic, which impacted everyone, but a 2022 scrap between university administration and then-Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides led to threats of forced relocation for hundreds of staff members.
“That was very traumatizing to our members,” said Barnetson. “Now that we’re back to this idea that workers should have some choice about where they work, that’s very exciting to me.”
The question on everyone’s mind now is: what comes next? Mayor Rob Balay said he felt the announcement would clear up confusion about what the next steps are but in the immediate aftermath Barnetson said his peers are left with more questions than answers.
“There are no details about what comes next, which is of some concern for our staff members and our union members. How much choice will they have? We’ve been told they’ll have choice where possible, but what does that mean?” asked Barnetson. “We need to hear from the university about either what comes next, or the process the university is going to go through to decide what comes next.”
A spokesperson for AU said board chair Byron Nelson was unavailable for an interview. Statements from local leaders and Barnetson himself suggest contention over where the digital university’s staff will live and work isn’t a relic of the past yet.
“Hopefully with this announcement they’ll start repatriating employees back to the home campus, and start developing a culture that’s a good environment to come back to,” said Balay. “The next step after that is to start hiring people back to Athabasca with new positions.”
Barnetson said while discussion hadn’t taken place around area-based hiring yet, AUFA and AU are heading to collective bargaining in the spring, and it is possible to see a similar proposal then.
“I think it would be difficult in an organization to have different staff subject to different policies, with people that have been here a long time having a choice of where to work and new people being compelled to live in a particular location,” said Barnetson. “That will bleed internal descension, and that’s something the employer will have to grapple with.
AUFA represents 400 or so staff, according to Barnetson, with roughly half of that number being professors or academic coordinators. The other half are administrative officers, including IT staff and librarians. Regardless of the job, Barnetson said AUFA doesn’t agree with forced relocation, but the question of place-based hiring hadn’t come up since the turn of the century.
“It happened in the distant past, where there was an expectation in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and even into the early 2000s that AUFA members either live in Athabasca or travel twice a week in person, but that has entirely disappeared since. That would be a big change to go back to that model,” said Barnetson. “It would require big questions like where would people live? There’s a significant housing shortage in Athabasca right now, and does it make any sense to hire people to a location where they can’t find a place to live?”
