AU prof fired after HR refuses reasonable accommodations necessary for her child’s health
Dr. Sabine Graf has been fired from her position as professor at Athabasca University for “undue hardship,” as Chief Human Resources Officer Pauline Smeltz declared AU cannot accommodate her request to stay in Austria, which she must do to prevent her son’s legs from being amputated.
This marks an abrupt and unjust end to years of Graf working with AUFA and HR to come to a reasonable solution. AUFA announced this internally to our members Sept. 30, when the decision was made, but chose to investigate the impacts of Sabine’s termination before publishing on our blog.
We have discovered the impacts will be far-reaching across the AU community. These impacts include the reputational harm from AU denying Sabine her rights as an academic and union member any jurisdiction and offering an insultingly small severance package.
Aside from the personal harm, it means the loss of more than $100,000 in grant funding, several research assistants losing their jobs with little notice or follow-up, intensely harming AU’s reputation with the granting agency NSERC, and ending Sabine’s committed academic work in thesis supervision, programs and partnerships. Sabine, a full professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology, has been in Austria for the past five years over a family status matter, as her child’s legs would be amputated in Canada. She did so with the full knowledge, understanding, and support from her faculty. In that time, she has been an exemplary employee in all respects.
Athabasca University has permitted Sabine Graf to live overseas for several years with the full knowledge and support of her faculty. Although her situation was legally unclear and required resolution, the resolution had to come through collaboration with AUFA and a full sharing of information.
Instead, AU ignored the matter until this year and did not work with AUFA to find a creative solution. Rather, AU stripped Sabine of her union rights and then terminated her with spurious legal arguments, pointing to evidence they did not share.
What happened
Sabine and AUFA published her situation and family matter this last July due to AU’s threats to terminate her. The reason for publicizing was to pressure AU into dealing directly with AUFA to find a solution to Sabine’s problems, rather than avoiding dealing with the union while threatening Sabine.
The public campaign of letter writing, along with media interest, had the desired effect as AU changed legal counsel. This new counsel began speaking with AUFA’s lawyer.
However, the conversations never moved from exploration of the issues to collaborative problem-solving. Unexpectedly, Sabine and AUFA representatives were invited to a meeting Sept. 29 with very short notice and a direct order that Sabine attend. In the meeting, Smeltz read a prepared statement that AU had researched the issue extensively and was declaring undue hardship.
She said this date comes about due to AU apparently discovering a five-year mark for Sabine’s time in Austria, which could result in a requirement to remit tax to the Austrian government.
AU did not specify the financial strain this would put the university under, and how it qualifies as undue hardship. It is also likely they waited until after Sabine’s faculty retreat, which took place at the end of September.
Consequences
As one of Athabasca University’s most connected and active academics, the obligation of her faculty and Human Resources would be to flag any potential termination in clear terms, set a deadline, and act by that deadline with all preparatory work done in advance. Communicating a deadline to cooperate would have granted Sabine and AUFA a fair chance to make a decision, rather than working from ominous threats and then a surprise meeting.
Terminating Sabine without any prior preparation is disastrous for AU, for several reasons.
Teaching
Sabine was actively supervising six master’s students at AU and two PhD students out of University of Eastern Finland. These students have been effectively abandoned in their post-graduate careers.
Research Funding
Four research assistants were immediately terminated by Human Resources along with Sabine, who received little explanation or follow-through.
Several grants, totaling nearly half a million dollars, have been cut shot due to her sudden termination, detailed in the table below. The termination of these grants significantly affects AU’s overall operational research funding.
Internal Service Work
In addition, Sabine performed extensive work reviewing internal grants for colleagues and otherwise participating in furthering AU’s research footprint.
On her committees, she was noted as being one of the most active and reliable members, performing heavy work in areas like the Academic Research Committee to promote the ongoing health of AU’s research. Her immediate loss significantly affects AU’s research footprint and risks the operational grant funding AU will receive to support research.
External Service Work
Sabine’s work on many external committees helped to improve AU’s reputation in research and service. This is now in jeopardy, as she is a member of many high-profile external organizations.
Incompetence from Human Resources
HR’s handling of this file, from the start, is egregious.
HR refused to engage seriously in this matter for years, fabricating the notion that Sabine was travelling between Austria and Canada. Any taxation risk the employer has borne has been through their own refusal to act. Statements to AUFA and Sabine have been purposefully vague. The declaration of undue hardship (twice) came without any clear evidence on how a university with a $164 million dollar budget could not handle the financial strain borne from a single employee.
AUFA is confident in our legal case in defending Sabine’s rights and family. However, labour operates on “work now grieve later,” which means that while we work through legal avenues, Sabine is without a job and the consequences of her firing will be felt—not just for her family but for the entire AU community.
Call to action
The AUFA Grievance Committee is preparing a fulsome campaign to respond to Sabine’s termination. As we do so, we are again calling for letters to the AU administration, Board of Governors, Minister of Advanced Education, and your local MLAs. Our national partner CAUT has provided this letter-writing tool as the situation unfolds.
President Alex Clark is up for renewal on a second five-year term. The handling of this matter calls into question the university’s commitment to its stated values, including trust and authentic respect, as one of its top-performing researchers was illegally fired for mysterious financial reasons that HR has refused to quantify.
We encourage AUFA members and allies to discuss this matter with any AU administrators they encounter.
Contact Us
If you would like to send a letter of support to Sabine, have questions for AUFA, or wish to volunteer please fill out the below form. We are actively seeking volunteers on this case and on others.