Colleges Collective Bargaining Act (CCBA) Background Information

The CCBA applies to both support staff and academic employees.

1. The Ontario government calls for a review of the CCBA and appoints Kevin Whitaker, Vice-Chair of the Labour Relations Board to conduct the review.

2. November 2007: The Colleges make a submission to Whitaker that recommends allowing the employer, and not the union, to call a vote on the offer last received. See page 9 of their submission: http://www.thecouncil.on.ca/documents/CCBAbrieffinal.pdf

3. February 2008: Kevin Whitaker issues his report: http://www.thecouncil.on.ca/documents/CollegesReportFeb08_E.pdf

Offer Votes: Whitaker acknowledges the colleges' request to have the employer call the offer vote "at the employer's option," and not the union's option, on p. 76 of his report. At page 85, he accepts the Colleges' proposal as his Recommendation #17: "The purpose behind this statutory feature is to permit the employer to test the attractiveness of its bargaining proposal directly with employees."

Binding Arbitration: Although Whitaker recommends deleting the section on binding arbitration from the CCBA, he says the following on page 84: of his report "The parties can always if they wish, agree to settle issues in bargaining by arbitration. Although this is a feature of the OLRA [Ontario Labour Relations Act], the CCBA should reflect the thinking that this is not a preferred route for dispute resolution. If it does become necessary, then the agreement of the parties or back to work legislation can provide for a mechanism of binding interest arbitration." The law can't prevent two parties from using arbitration on their own. For example, if you were suing someone, they could always agree with you to have an arbitrator settle it instead of the courts.

4. November 2008: The Ontario government accepts Whitaker's report in its entirety, drafts and passes Bill 90. The CCBA 2008 can be found here: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_08c15_e.htm

The offer vote provision shows up as Section 17(2): "The Council may, no earlier than 15 days before the expiry of a collective agreement, make a request in writing to the Ontario Labour Relations Board that a vote of the employees be taken to accept or reject the offer of the Council last received by the employee organization in respect of all matters remaining in dispute between the parties to the collective agreement."

Note that the union can only call two votes under the CCBA supervised by the Ontario Labour Relations Board: a strike vote under Section 17(1)(c) or a ratification vote under Section 16.

The definition of a ratification vote is a vote on an offer that has been signed off by both bargaining teams (often called a "memorandum of settlement"). During a ratification vote, the "prinicipals" (i.e. the union and its bargaining team) must recommend acceptance of the settlement offer "without reservation." To make comments to the contrary and suggest a "no" vote, would invite a "bargaining in bad faith" complaint either from the employer or from any of the employees.