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University failed to follow collective bargaining agreement when it ordered Kyle Anderson to cut employment references from his social profiles.
An arbitrator has ruled that the University of Saskatchewan never should have sent a letter telling an outspoken faculty member to remove references to his employment from his social media accounts.
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Lawyer Eric Cline presided over the labour board hearing between the university and its faculty association, which acted on behalf of Kyle Anderson, a tenured assistant professor in the College of Medicines department of biochemistry, microbiology and immunology.
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The decision, reached last month, outlines Andersons rise on social media during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, to eventually being ordered to strip all references to his faculty positions from his public communications.
Anderson scored his first hit in August 2020 with a 50,000-view Facebook video calling for pool testing of schoolchildren. By December 2020, hed racked up about 1.2 million views on various posts about the pandemic. He was also getting favourable notes from his supervisors, and being tapped to do interviews when media called the university with questions about COVID-19.
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In a rancorous Twitter exchange in December 2020, Anderson hurled personal insults at an unnamed person who was reportedly posting misinformation about the pandemic. This led to his first brush with university authorities, who had a communications specialist from the medical school provide him with training on best practices for social media.
Andersons postings again came to the attention of university leadership when, on April 14, 2021, he tweeted a post critical of Premier Scott Moe, including the line It sounds like there are already plots and maneuverings in motion to take down the Mad King of Saskeros in reference to the Saskatchewan premier. This led the RCMP to question Anderson to ensure there was no threat to Moes safety.
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A tweet on April 22, 2021 drew the letter from the administration that was at the heart of Clines decision.
On that day, while advocating for tighter pandemic measures in schools, Anderson re-tweeted a post suggesting a maskless child repeatedly coming to school while infectious with COVID-19 was responsible for infecting a Moose Jaw educational assistant who later died from the disease. The information turned out to be inaccurate, prompting Anderson to later take it down.
The grievance before Cline concerned a letter sent to Anderson after the April 22 tweet, signed by the universitys president, vice-president academic and the dean of the College of Medicine. In the letter, the signees noted the university had received multiple complaints about Andersons post, describing it as hateful and unconscionable, and that it amounted to a targeted victimization of a vulnerable family for singling out a child who, it was subsequently revealed, had autism.
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The universitys letter went on to say that Andersons post was reflecting badly on the university, by virtue of him identifying himself as a faculty member. It ordered him to remove all references to his employment from his social media and public communications, or potentially face further discipline.
The faculty association argued the letter amounted to a disciplinary action against a member outside of whats prescribed in the collective agreement with the university.
Clines decision is in favour of the unions position, noting the university failed to follow a key section of the collective agreement by not bringing the complaints against Anderson to his attention before sending him the letter, and therefore denying him an opportunity to be heard.
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Cline acknowledged that Andersons re-posting of unverified, inaccurate information was wrong, and perhaps even reckless, but added that he also never heard any evidence from anyone who signed the letter, leaving him with no idea of the number or content of the complaints against Anderson, and no evidence to show Andersons tweets damaged the universitys reputation.
Cline ruled the letter was a disciplinary measure that is not allowed under the collective agreement, and ordered that it be removed from any university files.
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Labour board finds Sask. professor was wrongly disciplined over COVID-19 posts - Saskatoon Star-Phoenix