Redundancy Benefits for Partial Layoff
by Wayne Noseworthy

Article 56 of the Provincial Collective Agreement outlines the provisions with respect to the payment of redundancy benefits in the event that a teacher is laid off.

Article 56.01 describes the level of benefit available to teachers who are "declared redundant and who are not reassigned in accordance with Article 9...".

The Association recently dealt with the case of a teacher who was reduced from a I-time position in June 1996 to a H-time position effective September 1996. When the teacher initially made inquires to the Department of Education as to her eligibility for the redundancy benefit as referenced above, she was informed that the benefit might not apply to her since she was not laid off entirely in her contractual situation.

However, after intervention and discussion by the Benefits and Economic Services Division of the Association, with personnel at the Department of Education, a decision was reached that the affected teacher would be entitled to a proportion of the redundancy benefit as described in Article 56.01. In this particular case, the teacher would be entitled to G (25%) of the entire benefit available to her based on her placement on the table in Article 56.01 with respect to service and age.

We see this decision as an important one with respect to the application of the redundancy provisions since, increasingly, members of the Association are faced with reduction in positions by way of partial layoff.

Any questions arising with respect to this item should be addressed to an Administrative Officer in the Benefits and Economic Services Division at the NLTA office.