Canadian Labour Reporter

JANUARY 20, 2014 6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 Continued on page 8 should escort female prisoners. The police van will be staffed by 2 employees. Training: Employees who successfully complete the Bachelor of Arts (Police Studies) at Memorial University or the Criminology Certificate Program and submit proof with re- ceipt for tuition and books will receive 50% reimbursement. n TRANSPORTATION Océan Remorquage Côte-Nord QUéBEC, QUE. (20 captains, mates and engineers) and the Canadian Merchant Service Guild (CMSG). Renewal agreement: Effective Oct. 3, 2013, to Oct. 1, 2018. Signed on Oct. 3, 2013. Paid holidays: 11 days. Vacations with pay: 4% to start, 6% after 6 years and 8% after 11 years. Overtime: Time and one-half. Pension: Company contributes 5% of regular salary. No ad- ditional information. Bereavement leave: 5 days for spouse, child or step-child. 3 days for father, mother, brother, sister or grandchild. 2 days for father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law and grandparents. Seniority – recall rights: 18 months. Discipline: Sunset clause is 2 years. Safety shoes: $150 per year. Uniforms/clothing: 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pants as well as Mustang-style coat and pants, work gloves, boots and coveralls for on board ships. Sample rates of pay, current: Captain: $34.75 per hour Mate Class 1-2: $32.21 Mate Class 3: $31.89 Engineer Class 3: $26.34 Engineer Class 4: $23.56 Editor's notes: On-call: 1 hour at regular rate for every 24 hours on call. Marriage: 2 paid days for wedding. Birth: 2 paid days for birth of child. Arbitration Awards Summaries of recent arbitration awards from federal and provincial arbitration boards. For summaries from past issues, visit www.labour-reporter.com for a searchable online archive. Your paid subscription includes unlimited access to the archive. Merger mayhem ensues after steel giant reorganizes jobs AS PART OF its ongoing reorganization, Essar Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., eliminated and recreated a number of positions — a move well within its rights, an arbitrator has decided. But the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2251 disagreed, launching a grievance in which it claimed the company violated the collective agreement. The case began when Essar Steel decentralized a certain number of fitter/welder positions by posting a number of de- partment-specific fitter/welder jobs and eliminating the original positions. Essentially, those positions would now be included under a different department, but the duties would be similar, if not identical. The relationship between Essar and the USW is a complicated one involving a number of union mergers and company bank- ruptcy. In 1995, employees signed a collective agreement which included them as partial owners of the company as well as a new management rights clause dictating the plant's operations would be "jointly administered." That came to an end in 2004, and the most recent collective agreement reflects the fact employees are no longer involved in ownership over Essar. If nothing else, arbitrator John Stout noted, previous collec- tive agreements serve as a testament to the unique and mature bargaining relationship. However, when Essar Steel decentralized the approxi- mately 87 jobs, it was to put accountability, along with re- quired resources, in the hands of its operating departments. As well, the company indicated the new structure would im- prove health and safety for staffers. The 87 fitter/welder positions were posted, but qualifica- tions were listed as "nil" and each of the 87 workers success- fully applied for the jobs, but not without adding they signed "under duress." According to the USW, the company did not create new jobs, but instead reassigned the same employees to perform the same work they had always done, just within a different department. The move had an adverse affect on employees' seniority rights. Though the USW agreed management had the right to assign and reassign workers as they please, it did not have the right to circumvent seniority lists pertaining to vacations, days off and preferred schedules. But Essar Steel maintained the management rights provi- sion provides it with the power to create new department- specific jobs. As it currently stands, the collective agreement addresses job swapping. When an existing job is changed or a new job estab- lished affecting job seniority lists, the company and union will develop a new seniority list together. In his decision, Stout sided with Essar Steel, saying the com- pany was within its rights when it created the new positions. The main focus of the decentralization was to put accountability and resources within operating departments, which eliminated inefficiencies and problems under the old structure. "Language cannot be examined in isolation. Rather, language must be interpreted in light of other provisions in the collec- tive agreement," Stout said, adding that while this particular

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