Striking college faculty rally in Toronto on Oct. 25, 2017.Thomas Campean/The Canadian Press
The union representing Ontario's college faculty has launched a charter challenge of legislation that ended a five-week strike and allowed 500,000 students to return to class.
The president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union says the back-to-work legislation introduced by the Liberal government, and supported by the opposition Progressive Conservatives, violated workers' rights.
In November, when the legislation was passed, the union vowed to challenge it in the courts. It filed the necessary documentation Tuesday.
In December, an arbitrator gave the province's 12,000 college faculty members a 7.75 per cent raise over four years.
The arbitrator's decision also included new language on academic freedom, which had been the main outstanding issue between faculty and the colleges.
The union is now demanding that the collective agreement awarded through arbitration be deemed to have expired and that both parties return to the bargaining table.