As early as this Friday, unionized workers at Many Rivers Counselling and Support Services will begin to be laid off, the Yukon Employees’ Union (YEU) said this morning.

It’s something that’s come as a shock to the members, YEU vice-president Paul Johnston told the Star this morning. He added he was blindsided by the move.

“There was no indication there would be layoffs, so it was totally unexpected,” Johnston said.

The affected employees had just returned to work earlier this month after having been on a strike since early November 2018.

“We had an agreement, and there should be funds in there for our members,” Johnston said.

The agreement was ratified in mid-January, and workers were scheduled to begin returning to work by the first week of February.

“Our members are getting notices ... as of this Friday” some are to be laid off, Johnston said. “So that’s three days’ notice; that’s not appropriate.”

With the notice coming to his attention Monday, the layoffs were handed out less than a month after workers went back to work.

Johnston added that between Friday and mid-to-late-March, between 12 to 14 unionized workers will be laid off.

A legal team is now looking at the notices, and Johnston could not go into particulars as to whether the layoffs will be temporary or permanent.

“Many Rivers provides services to very vulnerable citizens of the Yukon; funding is from YG,” he said, calling for accountability from both the employer and YG.

“All the funding (from YG) is public dollars,” he continued, likening the management and executive director’s failure to file documents on time as “irresponsible.”

The board’s executive director, as still listed on the society’s webpage, is Brent Ramsay.

However, Johnston said Ramsay has resigned – and the layoff notices were signed off by new executive director, Marina Bailey. She had previously served on the board as president.

Calls to Many Rivers’ Whitehorse offices went unanswered this morning. The society refused public comment throughout the long strike.

The Yukon government provided the organization with just over $2 million in funding in 2018.

“People in charge of these public funds should be looked at, for one – this is my money and your money,” Johnston said.

Workers had been on strike for 80 days since Nov. 2, before they returned to work earlier this month.

“These are human beings, counsellors with masters degrees, providing an essential service.”

Many Rivers has offices in the city, Dawson City, Watson Lake and Haines Junction.

The organization is also in hot water with YG after being listed as in default of the Societies Act since July 2018, for failing to file annual reports and financial statements with the Registrar of Societies.

The government received a number of complaints about the group’s status as a society and membership.

The Department of Community Services (which oversees the act) shared a copy received from an independent investigation with the Star this morning.

According to the report, the group held a scheduled AGM last Nov. 23, and the government received complaints days after that a number of people were denied entrance.

Also in that report, three recommendations are listed: among them are that complainants and all member applicants be given a chance to reapply for membership “under a process that fully, fairly and individually, considers their applications in light of Society concerns about whether indeed they subscribe to the purpose of the Society.”

Another suggests that depending on any legal advice the Registrar gets, the 2018 annual report should be filed “forthwith and the Society’s proposed bylaw first submitted October 9th 2018, should be reviewed as required before being approved or not by the Registrar.”

The registrar is now reviewing the report and “providing copies to Many Rivers and to the complainants, along with an invitation for them to make any submission they wish him to consider in making his decisions,” Bonnie Venton Ross, a Community Services spokesperson, wrote this morning.

The deadline for those submissions to the registrar is set for March 4.

After that, the registrar will make a decision based on the report and any responses he gets.

The Star confirmed last month that the government did not receive financial statements and annual reporting documents as needed from Many Rivers by July 2018 – leading it to be listed as in non-compliance. Once that happens, funding is cut from YG.

That same month, the group came to an agreement with the union that called for workers to get a seven per cent increase in their base salary over the five years the agreement covers, among other things.

See letter.