Faculty reaches settlement with UPEI over workplace misconduct report

The union that represents academic staff at UPEI says its members are happy the university has backed down from a legal challenge over releasing more details of a scathing report into allegations of workplace misconduct.

The faculty association said it reached a settlement with the university earlier this month over a grievance it filed back in 2023 claiming UPEI violated the association’s collective agreement by failing to take steps to ensure the health and safety of its members. 

According to the association, part of the settlement involved the university admitting it violated the collective agreement — something the union said is “tremendously important.”

“This is really [the university] saying, ‘No we violated the law, we violated the collective agreement,’” said Margot Rejskind, executive director of the UPEI Faculty Association. 

She said UPEI’s declaration will give the union more strength when filing grievances in the future because it proves the university is aware of instances of workplace harassment, failures to investigate past complaints and how it needs to improve moving forward.

The faculty association initially filed the grievance back in July 2023, after the university released a redacted copy of a third-party review looking into allegations of workplace misconduct at UPEI. 

That report, completed by the firm Rubin Thomlinson, concluded the university "failed to create a safe, respectful, and positive environment for working and learning for all members of its community" and described "dire" problems on campus that it said "should raise alarm bells and spark urgent action."

The firm was hired after former UPEI president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz resigned in December 2021, citing health reasons. The resignation came after fresh allegations of misconduct were brought forward against him. He had been the subject of two previous complaints years earlier.

In an email sent to faculty members on Nov. 20, the association said UPEI was ordered to provide the association with a less-redacted copy of the Rubin Thomlinson report as part of the arbitration process. According to the email, UPEI filed to appeal the order through a judicial review by the Supreme Court of P.E.I.

Rejskind told CBC News this week that the settlement involved UPEI abandoning its petition for the judicial review and publishing an updated version of the report, which was made available on the university’s website in September.

“The university decided, after fighting us for two years… they had decided in fact that they would settle,” said Rejskind.

The latest version of the report includes comments from staff members about the workplace culture at UPEI. 

“Human Resources policies are not there to help those who are being bullied, but to smooth and shush over situations to have everyone go back to work,” reads one of the formerly redacted comments. 

Another stated: “UPEI and the Board of Governors of UPEI are primarily interested in protecting… their reputations and not the safety and wellbeing of community members.”