The Union grieved the Employer’s failure to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a designated statutory holiday under the Collective Agreement.
Arbitrator Saunders agreed with the Union’s argument that National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a statutory holiday under the collective agreement, and ordered the Employer to recognize it as such, and to compensate the employees for the losses occasioned to date. The Arbitrator applied well-known collective agreement interpretation principles to conclude that the phrase “forced by legislation to close its operation” cannot be read in its literal sense. Therefore, the phrase must be a description of the legislative context in which businesses either close, or pay wages at a premium, given the legislative context in which the collective agreement exists.