OTTAWA | The professors’ union at Laval University accuses the institution of favoritism after it offered a promotion to federal minister Jean-Yves Duclos, despite years of absence as a teacher. A grievance has been filed.
On October 30, the University discreetly appointed the Minister of Supply to the position of assistant to the vice-rector for human resources and finance.
The promotion did not pass through the Union of Professors of Laval University (SPUL), which sees it as a roundabout way of protecting the employment relationship with the professor who became a minister.
“After all these leaves of absence, he had to either resign as a professor or return to work,” says the president of the SPUL, Marie-Hélène Parizeau, by email.
“Unreasonable and abusive”
In a grievance dated November 28 and including The newspaper obtained a copy, the SPUL describes as “fictitious” the appointment of the Quebec MP to a position “with no task to carry out” and “no real mandate”, whose “sole objective” would be to protect a possible return to his position as teaching at the University, in contravention of the rules in force.
According to the collective agreement, a professor can take leave without pay while maintaining his position at the University for a maximum of two terms, in addition to a one-year extension.
Elected for the first time in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 and 2021, Mr. Duclos had therefore exhausted all his options to justify his unpaid leave, according to the union. Last fall’s appointment to an administrator position allows him to circumvent the collective agreement, according to the SPUL.
“The Employer’s actions are unreasonable and abusive,” we read in the union grievance. They aim to grant superior advantages to a professor as well as the benefit of protection of the employment relationship through distorted, fictitious and circuitous actions.
According to the president of SPUL, the faculty on which Professor Duclos depends is deprived of a teaching position pending a possible return.
“We can doubt that any professor requesting such accommodation would have received exceptional treatment like this,” says M.me Parizeau.
The mandate of deputy vice-rector of Minister Jean-Yves Duclos began retroactively on September 21, 2023 and ends in principle on June 30, 2027.
Thanks to this appointment, his employment relationship is protected during this period.
Unanswered questions
In a laconic email, the management of Laval University claims to have made the appointment of Minister Duclos “in complete transparency”.
The questions of Newspaper concerning the nature of the position offered and the tasks to be accomplished remained a dead letter.
In a statement sent to Newspaper, Minister Duclos reiterated his intention to seek a fourth mandate in the next federal elections, without however commenting on the union’s allegations of favoritism.
Mr. Duclos also did not offer an explanation on the nature of his new position as administrator.
“As regularly happens for elected officials from the university environment, I took unpaid leave from Laval University when I was elected as a deputy in 2015,” explains Mr. Duclos by email. This unpaid leave was taken according to the standards of collective agreements and the rules of Laval University.”
