Laid-off carpenter raises concerns about management within Regina Catholic Schools

When Michael Ripplinger began working as a journeyman carpenter with the Regina Catholic School Division (RCSD) in March 2015, he envisioned himself in the role well into the age of retirement.

At that time, Ripplinger said morale was at an all-time high and he enjoyed going to work in a busy, friendly atmosphere.

“When I was first hired on, we’d have a couple barbecues in the summer: One with the whole facilities staff, which includes us maintenance guys and the caretakers, and then we’d have one at our supervisor’s house another time in the summer,” the 36-year-old remembered. “But as time went on, things just kind of changed.”

In September, the RCSD laid off four carpenters, including Ripplinger. The school board attributed the layoffs to provincial budget cuts.

With three kids under four years old at home, Ripplinger said he’d like things to get back to the way they were. He’d like to be rehired if the opportunity arose.

“This job was everything. It was our family’s income. Once Nov. 5 comes around and the termination becomes reality, it’s going to be tough. It’s definitely not a hot (job) market out there, so it could be some troubling times for my family,” he said.

“But I’m not holding my breath on getting my job back. It would be great if they could reinstate us and move forward that way, but in the end, I want the truth to come out and maybe there’ll be change in the future for the future staff at the maintenance shop.”

For Ripplinger, things changed about two or three years into the job. It was around that time he said his supervisor became increasingly more absent and it seemed there was less work to be done.

“A lot of times, the four of us would be working together in a smaller, more confined space and sometimes that led to a little bit of tension,” he recalled. “Things just took a turn for the worst and it just kept going downhill.”

Ripplinger said the “turning point” came when staff noticed management in the maintenance shop “had a different set of rules.”

There were instances, he remembered, when tools would be lent out by supervisors to people outside the school division.

“We saw with our own eyes somebody dropping off a rototiller — and it’s one of our superintendent’s friends — when regular maintenance staff aren’t allowed to borrow tools,” Ripplinger said.

He also claims there were times when jobs would be suddenly re-prioritized without reason.

“One time, we had maybe a morning worth of work left and all of a sudden we were taken off the job because we had to do high-priority suspended ceilings. Our supervisor contracted out a buddy to finish the rest of the job,” Ripplinger said. “You kind of scratch your head and wonder, ‘Why? Is he just helping out a buddy who’s in need or what?’ Things like that went on.”

Ripplinger noted he and his colleagues never reported what transpired to their higher-ups for fear of getting their hands slapped.

Last month, after being laid off and with “nothing left to lose,” Ripplinger wrote an email to school board trustees and the director of education, outlining his concerns and examples in which he felt management stepped over the line.

“I wish I would have come forward years ago to (human resources) to give insight on what was happening. But if we ever did have issue, we would talk to our superintendent, thinking it was somebody that we could trust but he’s friends with the supervisor — our direct boss — so it’s kind of a lose-lose situation for us,” he said.

“If management higher than them knew about what was going on, maybe somebody else would have been brought in and things would have changed. We were all just kind of holding out hope, thinking that change would happen, but I guess the change was getting rid of us.”

Bob Kowalchuk, board chair of the RCSD, said the school division is investigating Ripplinger’s claims.

“This is not going to be put on some backburner. As a board, we always are concerned, we listen to our staff. This is one of those circumstances where, when you get information like this, it causes you concern so you want to ensure that you are doing right by your staff,” he said.

At the moment, Kowalchuk noted the school division is “actively pursuing” solutions by working through an internal process for addressing employee concerns.

“We send (concerns) back to (the director of education) and he works through the process with the senior administrative staff, addresses them and comes back with a proposal or recommendation to the board on what’s the best way to manage it. Then (the board has) discussions on the steps that he’s taking, and we move from there,” he explained.

Laid-off carpenters encouraged to reapply for positions, board says

While the board works through investigating Ripplinger’s claims, Kowalchuk emphasized the four laid-off carpenters have an opportunity this month to reapply for two new carpentry jobs within the school division.

Ripplinger said he has plans to reapply, but he’s leery.

“It’s just kind of fishy that they would lay four of us off, yet hire two more carpenters basically right after they got rid of us. Having this new carpenter with this special title, it’s almost a loophole for them not to hire us back,” he said.

“They could have transitioned two of us into those two positions that they want to fill — that’s why I don’t know why they did it that way. That’s why I think it’s more of a personal thing — they wanted us out. Now, they can start fresh and all of those issues are shoved under the rug.”

Without making the same speculations, Kowalchuk noted the board has similar queries around the specific reasoning behind laying off four carpenters when two positions are now empty. He said the board has asked the director of education to look into that as well.

“What we’ve asked our director to do is to review this entire (layoff) process to ensure what we have done and that we’ve gone about it fairly,” Kowalchuk said. “We need to be able to address this in a way that’s going to be fair for everybody and if we had made some mistakes somewhere along the way, then we need to correct them.”