New BrunswickThe New Brunswick government has applied for a judicial review and a stay of a labour board decision ordering the province to rescind layoff notices for library workers in three school districts and reinstate the working hours of school administrative assistants.Library workers don’t provide direct support to students, province saysAllyson McCormack · CBC News · Posted: Aug 22, 2025 3:40 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoFinance Minister René Legacy says his department has applied for a judicial review and a stay of the labour board’s decision. (Mike Heenan/CBC)The New Brunswick government has applied for a judicial review and a stay of a labour board decision ordering the province to reinstate library workers in three school districts. The application was filed on Thursday after the Court of King’s Bench stepped in this week and issued a court order to the province that it follow last month’s ruling by the Labour Board and Employment Board.In its decision on July 29, the board ordered the government to rescind layoff notices issued to library workers in Anglophone West, Anglophone South and Francophone South school districts.The province was also ordered to reverse the decision to reduce the working hours of school administrative assistants. Finance Minister René Legacy said in a statement the government filed the application on Thursday, and “should a stay not be granted, government intends to proceed with the layoffs of the library workers again once we are legally in a position to do so.”The statement went on to say that in an effort to improve reading and math scores, the province wants to see more resources in the classroom, and those plans “do not include library workers as they do not provide direct support to students.”Theresa McAllister, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 2745 president, disagrees with that assertion, but said she’s not surprised the province is challenging the order. Theresa McAllister, president of Local 2745 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, says she is not surprised the province is fighting the court order. (Allyson McCormack/CBC)”That’s usually what they do, right?” she said. “They usually appeal or tie it up in court. That’s been the practice of the previous government and now it seems to be the practice of this government too.”The layoffs and reduction of hours in Anglophone West, Anglophone South, and Francophone South were announced last spring, after the province told all seven school districts to find $43 million in savings. But McAllister said this money should have been found elsewhere. “We have seven regions and only two eliminated the library workers,” she said, adding that the third, Francophone South, only had minimal layoffs. “The other four did not touch their library workers.”WATCH | NBTA president can’t ‘speculate’ on whether students will be able to bring home books: Teachers will be able to manage classroom library workload, NBTA president saysWith September just around the corner, information about how school libraries will work without library positions is scarce. For now, CUPE is telling its members to follow the direction of their employer and not return to their previous roles, despite the labour board decision and court order. CBC News has made multiple requests for interviews with provincial officials on the issue this week, but the requests were declined. Education Minister Claire Johnson would not answer news media questions about the legal battle. Other CBC requests for comment from the province also went unanswered. (Charles-Étienne Drouin/Radio-Canada)Education Minister Claire Johnson was asked about the court order at a news conference Friday, but she said she had “nothing else to add” to the statement that was issued by the Finance Department.Classroom library demand The Anglophone South School District has said the elimination of library worker positions won’t affect students because schools also have classroom-based book collections.Heidi Ryder, the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association president, says teachers should be able to manage the extra demand on classroom libraries. (RB Photography)CBC News asked Heidi Ryder, president of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association, how teachers are going to manage the increased demand on those classroom libraries, now that access to a school library is gone. “Classroom libraries have always existed, so I think they’ll be able to manage that,” she said in a news conference. “But certainly providing literacy resources is always important for our students.”When asked if students would be permitted to take books home from the classroom library, as they would have done with school libraries, she said she didn’t know.”But I think we have to trust in our education professionals to make sure that students get what they need.”ABOUT THE AUTHORAllyson McCormack is a producer with CBC New Brunswick, based in Fredericton. She has been with CBC News since 2008.
N.B. government fights court order to bring back library workers
