The Québec branch (SEPB-Québec) of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE) has released a statement threatening legal action following the mass termination of Paper’s Canadian tutors last month.
“Paper may fiddle around by claiming to be experiencing financial difficulties, but we are not fooled.”
SEPB-Québec executive director Pierrick Choinière-Lapointe
Earlier this year, COPE local 131 in Ontario and SEPB-Québec local 574 were granted accreditation to represent Paper tutors in collective bargaining following a secret vote. Both unions were still in the process of preparing first negotiations when Paper laid off all the tutors, SEPB-Québec told BetaKit in an email.
“SEPB-Québec will take all legal action they deem necessary to ensure that employees are treated fairly,” the union said in a statement.
Following the publication of this story, COPE local 131 organizer Casey Oraa sent an emailed statement to BetaKit noting the chapter was “similarly concerned and disgusted by Paper’s extreme clear cutting of its tutoring workforce across the country.”
Oraa alleged that Paper had previously committed to the tutors returning to work in early August, but then “kept pushing back” the return-to-work date before terminating all of the tutors on the cusp of Labour Day weekend. Referencing online tutoring contracts between Paper and school boards with unionized teachers and workers like the Toronto District School Board, Oraa added, “we’d be surprised if their actions don’t have ripple consequences beyond Ontario and Quebec.”
“We are absolutely looking into this from many legal angles and have serious concerns about Paper’s actions leading up to these terminations,” Oraa added. “It seems like Paper might be under the mistaken assumption that this ends their obligations under the law.”
In an email statement to BetaKit, a Paper spokesperson said that its recent layoffs were “driven by a fundamental need to improve operational efficiency by right-sizing our headcount to meet the current needs of our business.”
“The size of our operations today enables us to nimbly deliver the service our district partners expect while putting our business on a more solid and sustainable footing for the future,” the spokesperson said. In its emailed statement to BetaKit, Paper did not directly address the union’s plans to take legal action.
An SEPB-Québec union representative told BetaKit it had already launched three complaints against Paper for changes in the working conditions after the unionization, but had not made any complaints regarding the layoffs yet. The union claims it has invited Paper to collaborate with Quebec’s government “several times,” and tried to negotiate severance packages for the tutors without success.
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“We are evaluating our legal options right now and, if Paper doesn’t discuss with us to make sure they meet their obligation, we will file complaints for every violation of the law that Paper has made in the layoff process,” SEPB-Québec told BetaKit. “We have several lawyers in our staff working on the case.”
The union’s statement alleges that the work previously performed by 130 tutors in Québec and more than 700 in the rest of Canada has been transferred to non-unionized workers in the United States (US). The union also alleges that Paper reportedly informed the workers that their services were no longer required by email.
“Whether it’s better wages or less restrictive working conditions, management has always asked more of their employees by promising better days without keeping their promises,” Naomi Spiegelman, president of the Paper employees’ unit at SEPB-Québec, said in the statement. “I am sad to see that the company prefers to lay us all off rather than face us as equals at a bargaining table.”
The Paper spokesperson told BetaKit that “the vast majority” of Paper’s partners are based in the US, where it has seen a rapid increase in US state-specific biometric safeguards, like fingerprinting. “Having a US-based tutor workforce allows us to set and maintain a gold standard with respect to these evolving student-safety requirements.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic proved a boon to Paper’s mission, the startup secured $343 million CAD ($270 million USD) in Series D capital in 2022. Paper went on to make two acquisitions in March 2023, Readlee and MajorClarity, before a series of layoffs in August and September 2023, as well as April 2023, according to a report by The Globe and Mail.
“We hired aggressively at the onset of the pandemic as schools shifted to online learning and never decreased the size of our tutor team following the post-pandemic decline in demand,” the Paper spokesperson said. “This resulted in our being over-staffed, with many tutors receiving minimal and inconsistent scheduled hours, understandably causing frustration.”
The embattled Montréal EdTech startup’s latest round of job cuts came alongside with the company parting ways with founding CEO Phil Cutler in favour of Silicon Valley EdTech veteran Rich Yang. In a statement sent to BetaKit last month, the company said the move was done to help the organization “return to growth over the longer term.” Two weeks later, Paper announced it was laying off all of its Canadian tutors, with Yang telling The Globe and Mail that focusing on the US market will give the company a chance to rebuild its operation and improve its financial situation.
“We file our certification to represent these workers and a few weeks later, everyone is fired!” SEPB executive director Pierrick Choinière-Lapointe said in the statement. “Paper may fiddle around by claiming to be experiencing financial difficulties, but we are not fooled.”
The union said it believes the layoffs were an “ideological” decision, calling the layoffs a “scare tactic” to stop potential unionization campaigns.
UPDATE (09/17/2024): This story has been updated with commentary from COPE local 131 organizer Casey Oraa.
Image source Unsplash. Photo Thomas Park.