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The Alberta government introduced legislation Thursday that will give academic staff at universities and colleges the right to strike, bringing the province into compliance with a recent Supreme Court ruling.

The bill affects faculty associations, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who weren’t covered by essential services legislation introduced last year.

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The change means academic staff will now have to negotiate an essential services agreement as part of their next round of collective bargaining. Those agreements determine which workers provide vital services and must stay on the job in the event of a work stoppage.

Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt said the post-secondary sector had to be dealt with separately due to is unique nature, compared to the rest of the public service.

“One of the unique characteristics of the post-secondary sector right now is the power of the boards of governors of universities and colleges to designate who qualifies as academic staff and who doesn’t. That’s unusual in other sectors,” said Schmidt.

“We made these changes that preserve that collegial government’s nature in universities and colleges,” said Schmidt.