2 colleges announce temporary layoffs

Temporary layoffs have been announced at Bow Valley College and Medicine Hat College as organizations continue to struggle with the impact of COVID-19.

Twenty-five workers at Calgary’s Bow Valley College have been axed because of the “current volume of work and changing operation priorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) in a statement.

They represent 22 of the affected staff.

The layoffs include library, student awards, administration and facility service positions.

“These job losses are the opposite of what Alberta needs right now. With the pandemic and economic collapse we need to keep Albertans working, not add them to the long lists of unemployed,” said Bobby-joe Borodey, vice-president of AUPE. “We should be using colleges to quickly train as many people as possible to fill desperately needed health-care jobs working to beat COVID-19. We also need to train Albertans for jobs after the pandemic.”

At the college in Medicine Hat, 11 workers have been cut temporarily due to the pandemic.

This includes nine fulltime and two part-time staff who work in food, building, mail room, bookstore and library services.

AUPE said there are also five permanent job losses at the southern Alberta school attributed to budget cuts.

“These job cuts are an act of hypocrisy by the Alberta government,” said AUPE vice-president Karen Weiers.