It is hard to understand the real reasons the teacher was non-renewed. The company stated it was because the member wasn’t a good enough teacher. The problem is that they had never really evaluated him, and had actually told him this. There had been a few very minor suggestions for improvement such as “smile more”, but nothing of any real importance.

Initial negotiations saw the contract renewed for 3 months and the teacher agreeing to “retraining”. He accepted that perhaps there were some improvements he might make. He went through two weeks of training and observation without difficulty, and with many positive comments. One month before the end of the contract he was again notified of his non-renewal, with the excuse given that his teaching was substandard.

This was in direct contrast to the positive evaluations that he had been given in writing. The only conclusion we could come to was that a trainer may have had a personal issue with him, or the company was trying to get rid of union members. The desire to avoid a labor dispute and the accompanying unfair labour practice case, in the midst of the company being sold yet again, made certain that we were able to protect our member’s job.

We are interested to hear from members and non-members alike about problems over the renewal process.