Okanagan College (OC) breached job security provisions when it laid off three professors last year and altered the employment of 14 others.
A March 30, 2026 arbitration ruling between the union representing the professors and the college found the college failed to follow the proper process in the 2025 employment actions.
“This is an historical decision for our members,” said Caroline Gilchrist, president of the Okanagan College Faculty Association (OCFA).
There are provisions in the collective agreement between the college and OCFA to allow the employer to adapt to new academic and financial situations, but those provisions were not followed the arbitrator found.
The association took OC to task over the layoffs, arguing they could only take place in circumstances of program redundancy, program reduction or financial exigency.
The college asserted that the layoffs and other changes were an appropriate and necessary exercise of its management rights due to the budgetary impact of 2024 changes by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to reduce and cap the number of study permits issued nationally and further reduction in college programs eligible for post-graduate work.
In the 2025-2026 fiscal year, OC projected a deficit of $8.7 million, forcing it to go to the Minister of Finance, who directed the college to fund the difference out of its reserves.
The arbitrator’s ruling noted that there were doubts as to how much of impact was from the 2024 IRCC changes, what other cost reduction options the college has available, and that the despite the college arguing it could not declare financial exigency (urgency, emergency) over a single-deficit budget that doing so was an option available to it.
Arbitrator Jessica Gregory upheld the OCFA’s grievance.
“In conclusion, following a comprehensive review of the evidence, arguments and authorities presented by the parties, I conclude that the college has breached the job security provisions of the Collective Agreement,” her decision reads.
It’s one the OCFA applauds as, “a significant affirmation of the protections we have built together over the past 25 years,” said Gilchrist.
“These protections have provided the stability needed to support strong programming and the work we are all proud to do.”
Along with ignoring the protections and avoiding required consultation both with faculty and the broader community, the OCFA says the college’s lack of transparency is what led to a vote of no confidence last year in college president Neil Fassina.
“In that vote, 83 per cent of faculty who voted said they had no confidence in Fassina’s leadership,” the OCFA said.
It claims the college also removed regional deans and regional advisory councils in communities, cut adult upgrading, and reduced student services at the smaller campuses.
“Students have found themselves without in-person access to important university transfer courses in their home communities of Salmon Arm, Vernon, and Penticton,” OCFA said.
Black Press Media has reached out to Fassina and Okanagan College for further information on how the decision will be handled.