By: Corbett Gildersleve, News Writer and Hannah Fraser, News Editor

The Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) has initiated staff layoffs, with five out of eight full-time union positions affected as of July 25. All the positions either support student activities or the SFSS’ operations, and do not include SFSS executives. The positions are also represented by CUPE 3338, a non-profit union organization.

The affected positions include the student advocacy coordinator, campaigns and mobilization coordinator, communications coordinator, one of the member services coordinators for clubs, and the member services coordinator for student group events. 

According to the SFSS website, 18 full-time positions are currently filled. Laying off employees from eight of these positions would mean cutting nearly half of the full-time staff. The Peak spoke with CUPE 3338 president Shaneza Bacchus to learn more.

Bacchus said CUPE received notice from the SFSS of the layoffs on July 7, but the SFSS did not specify which positions would be affected. The reason given was “budgetary constraints and the viability of the SFSS.” The Society’s 2024–25 operating budget indicates their total revenue was about $3.1 million, while their total expenditures were about $4.1 million. This puts the SFSS in a deficit of approximately $1 million. 

Bacchus replied to the notice the next day, saying the union would consult CUPE’s national group. CUPE also wanted to schedule labour adjustment planning meetings with the SFSS. These meetings require the Society and the union to review the financial situation, who would be affected, and develop a plan that oversees the layoffs, according to section 54 of the BC Labour Code. Additionally, that section sets a 60-day period to develop this plan before layoff notices go out. 

On July 16, Bacchus met with the SFSS to discuss the notice for layoffs, which was issued while the two groups were bargaining around their collective agreement. This agreement sets the working conditions, wages, benefits, and other matters between the two groups. The current agreement expired in August 2024 and is still in force until a new one is agreed upon. 

During this meeting, the SFSS specified that eight positions were being laid off, and CUPE responded that bargaining and the layoff process can’t happen at the same time. “It’s acting in complete bad faith to issue a notice of layoff with bargaining (already) scheduled,” Bacchus said. She explained that the same people being laid off would also discuss moving forward through bargaining: “It’s not going to be productive or efficient.” Referencing CUPE’s recent news posts, up to two of the union’s members could be removed. 

CUPE asked the SFSS to proceed with one process or the other, but the SFSS moved forward with both. 

The next day, Bacchus said the SFSS started issuing notices of layoffs to affected staff without informing the union ahead of time. She sent the SFSS an email stating that they were “aghast that this decision was made,” and that the SFSS “did not treat the impacted individuals with the basic dignity and respect by scheduling face-to-face meetings.” 

“An employer still has limitations. They can’t just do what they want, and how they want, when they want.” — Shaneza Bacchus, president, CUPE 3338

Bacchus then received a tip an hour later that the SFSS scheduled face-to-face meetings with those staff without union representation. 

According to Bacchus, she and Bridget Barker, CUPE’s vice-president and lead steward, went to the Student Union Building to stop this. “We confronted the operations [Patience Okuku] and HR [Chandra Trinh] leads firmly for their entire handling of the notice of layoffs. They denied the meetings happened. We then met with impacted staff briefly outside of the restricted staff area because they were in shock,” Bacchus said.

“An employer still has limitations. They can’t just do what they want, and how they want, when they want,” she said, concerning the whole process. “It’s operating so fundamentally backwards.” 

The Peak reached out to the SFSS about the reasoning behind the layoffs, the timeline and process followed, their compliance with the Labour Code, and how these changes will affect bargaining and the Society moving forward. They stated Council “is limited in the information it can share at the moment, and we will be sharing more once things are better solidified.” 

For now, they said, “the Board of Directors approved layoffs in accordance with article 37 of our collective agreement,” and, as Bacchus mentioned, that “this decision is part of a broader strategy to address financial hardship and budget constraints” for the Society’s sustainability. The SFSS emphasized their commitment “to working collaboratively with CUPE 3338, and to upholding our collective agreement, ethical standards, and equity commitments in all decisions affecting staff and students.”

On July 23, the union filed a group grievance with the SFSS for the notice of layoff, stating six areas where the collective agreement was violated. Grievances under article 41 of the collective agreement are any issues with how the agreement is interpreted and/or followed. These are first handled between the union and the SFSS, and if they’re unable to resolve it, it can proceed to arbitration. At the time of the interview, Bacchus said the union is trying to schedule meetings with the SFSS around this.  

Under the current SFSS-CUPE 3338 collective agreement, permanent staff have a few options when presented with a layoff. They can take a severance payout or “bump” another staff member with lower seniority. 

“If more members take the right to bumping, then that can take additional weeks to implement [ . . . ] and that staff person would then go through the layoff process,” stated Bacchus. “It’s such a ripple effect.”