Telus and Telecommunications Workers Union United Steelworkers, Local 1944 (unreported)

On the merits portion of this case, we successfully argued that the Employer had created a new job and underpaid the employees doing the work in that job. This decision addresses the remedy.

The employer wanted to deduct certain incentive payments from the calculation of the extra wages that they were owed on the theory that “if we had known we had to pay that much in wages, we never would have paid them all this incentive money, we would have paid them far less in our incentive program".

The arbitrator agreed with us that the Employer’s position was speculative and that they could not deduct these monies.

The result was a difference of over $400,000, with the final tally being $740,000.

This was the largest monetary award that the Union had ever achieved for its members. They describe this victory on their website at this link: https://usw1944.ca/articles/concierge-arbitration-win?fbclid=IwAR2BudEvCvhliPFqKulOE-6iEBEimXwBlWBAPGfar7Q1LCmvQqXCGQEoe4A

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Providence Health Care (St. Paul’s Hospital) v. Health Sciences Association of British Columbia (unreported)

Lindsay A. Waddell and Natasha L. Edgar successfully represented the Union in this grievance. The Employer had denied the grievor’s request for Special Leave, after she travelled to visit her imminently palliative father on a day that she was booked on Union Leave. In denying her request for Special Leave, the Employer failed to comply with the mandatory language of the Special Leave provision in the Collective Agreement. The Arbitrator agreed that the mandatory language of the Special Leave provision would require specific language prohibiting its application, that the Employer had failed to comply with the requirements of the Special Leave provisions of the Collective Agreement and granted the grievance.

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Providence Health Care (St. Paul's Hospital) and Health Sciences Association, unreported

Lindsay A. Waddell and Natasha L. Edgar successfully represented the Union in this grievance. The Employer had prevented the grievor from changing her vacation leave to union leave in order to attend a union training course. In denying the leave, the Employer had failed to follow the union leave requirements in the Collective Agreement. The Arbitrator agreed with the Union that union leave is an important right that had been bargained for, the Employer had not properly complied with the union leave provisions of the Collective Agreement, and granted the grievance.

Read the decision here.

Lafarge Canada v International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Lodge D385 (Aguilar - Hours of Work Grievance)

The Employer unilaterally created an afternoon shift that had not been negotiated with the Union and assigned an employee to it.  All shifts in the agreement had traditionally been negotiated.  The Arbitrator agreed with the Union that the Employer could not create a non negotiated shift (except for abnormal or emergency circumstances) and allowed the grievance.

The take away is that when parties negotiate specific shifts and hours for employees those must be respected and cannot be unilaterally changed pursuant to “management rights”.

The case can be read here.

Canada Post Corporation v. Canadian Union of Postal Workers, 2020 BCSC 503

Tamara Ramusovic and Natasha Edgar, on behalf of the Union, successfully defended a judicial review petition seeking to overturn a labour arbitrator’s decision. The BC Supreme Court dismissed the employer’s petition for reason of undue delay in filing the petition with the Court. Although there were no applicable statutory timeframes for the filing of the petition, we successfully argued that in the circumstances of the case, the employer’s delay in seeing judicial relief was unreasonable and undermined the proper functioning of labour dispute resolution in general, and the parties’ contractual choices about how to resolve their disputes under their collective agreement.

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Delta Cement v. International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Local Lodge D277 (Roller Mill Contracting Out Grievance), January 16, 2020 (unreported) (McPhillips)

Richard Edgar and Natasha Edgar, on behalf of the Union, successfully argued that the employer was in breach of the Collective Agreement when it contracted out maintenance work. This decision ended many years of improper contracting out by the Employer which was undermining of the bargaining unit.

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Lhoist North America of Canada Inc. v. Cement, Lime and Gypsum Division of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Lodge D486 (Belanger Termination), December 14, 2019 (unreported) (Gregory)

Tamara Ramusovic and Natasha Edgar, on behalf of the Union, successfully grieved the termination of the grievor for sleeping on the job. The arbitrator ordered the grievor reinstated to his previous position.

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Telus v Telecommunications Workers Union, USW Local 1944 (Concierge) (unreported) (Sullivan)

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Sylvain v. Westbank Pacific Realty Corp., 2017 BCHRT 26

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