In its latest effort to downsize, Conestoga College is offering exit tickets to more than half of its 700 full-time faculty members. The voluntary exit incentive program targets staff in areas that are at risk of being discontinued due to the school’s declining enrolment. On Friday, 373 full-time employees, including librarians and counsellors, received a memo with details on the offer and the reasoning behind it. “Due to the declining enrolment within our sector and specifically at the college that are the result, in part, of changes to Canada’s international work permit program, the college is in a period of significant restructuring, including intake suspensions, program suspensions, and ongoing staff reductions across all employee groups,” the memo said. “There are programs that are on the list that don’t make any sense,” explained Leopold Koff, the president of OPSEU Local 237, which represents full-time faculty, librarians and counsellors at Conestoga College. Koff said those programs include health and safety training, among others, while the trades have remained relatively untouched. “They’re spreading a wide net, looking for attrition in order to cut costs,” he added. To qualify for the offer, full-time employees must have worked at the college for at least two years. “It’s not being offered to all faculty, only a certain group,” Koff said. “And that makes those people very nervous, thinking that they’re basically on the block.” An exit package is different from a severance package, which is part of the collective bargaining agreement. The union said it was consulted in the process. “They are the college’s creation. They are their rules, their game,” Koff said. “Was it as good of a package as we would like, ideally? No,” he continued. “However, it’s better than nothing.” Eligible employees have until Oct. 20 to decide if they want to accept the college’s offer. Applications will be approved by Oct. 27 and successful candidates will officially leave their roles on Dec. 19. “They want to be sure that there’s still a critical mass where necessary, obviously,” said Koff. “They don’t want to completely wipe out all the programs immediately.” Conestoga College’s offer comes amid a province-wide strike by college support staff, which is well into its second week. “Support staff are critical to what we do as faculty,” said Koff. “Because in many cases, the support staff support us in so many different ways.” The union also stressed that the exit incentives were voluntary and not a layoff notice. Koff said if all 373 eligible employees were approved, however, it would devastate the college and the community. “We are in an existential threat here as a provincial, publicly funded college system,” he said. “We have never seen layoffs or reductions of staff as much as we see here.” CTV News reached out to Conestoga College for comment. The school said, as they have on numerous other occasions, that no one was available for an interview.
