Canadian Labour Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER news Photo: Christinne Muschi (Reuters) New system will hold top brass liable: RCMP staff association < from pg. 1 Association of Canada in Vancou- ver, who said the decision left him "over the moon." "The current staff relations system had a lot of concerns, and in bringing them forward to either management or the Treasury Board, there was more begging than bargaining," he explained. "There was nothing compelling people on the other side of the table to act on issues being brought forward." Of particular concern for the federal government was that a strike or labour action would have the potential to disrupt pub- lic safety. But the point is moot, noted Selwyn Pieters, a Toronto- based labour lawyer, as all police bodies in the country have the right to bargain and most are even unionized. Should both parties hit a wall during negotiations, what's more likely to happen is a third-party arbitrator would be called in, Piet- ers said, adding that the govern- ment has the unequivocal power to dictate what is considered an essential service and can legislate police back to work. In fact, Creasser said, an arbi- trator would buffer talks at the bargaining table. "We're hoping the model that's chosen will involve management and the Treasury Board and our collective bargaining agents and that they can come to some type of agreement — but, if not, we're hoping for third-party bind- ing arbitration," Creasser said. "There's glue to make people bargain because the decision you may get from an arbitrator may not make anybody happy. So there's some impetus to get a deal done at the table." In the 1960s, an RCMP-spe- cific labour relations rubric was established that gave the com- missioner the final word when it came to employment conditions. It was through such an anti- quated system that the rank and file fell through the cracks, said Creasser, adding that a collective agreement or labour association would keep top brass accountable. "The RCMP managers could not have done a better job of creat- ing an environment where people wanted to unionize — and then they did," he said. And through collective bar- gaining and a negotiated contract, the police force can change its in- ternal culture. "It's an important decision because the court system within the RCMP is broken," said Piet- ers. "A system of collective bar- gaining will allow RCMP officers to bargain for training, better pay, proper supervision and proper equipment." Pieters cited the recent slew of deaths — including the slay- ing of three officers last summer in Moncton, N.B., and one ear- lier this year in St. Albert, Alta. — within the force that, while they may not have been prevent- ed, would certainly have been brought to light had a collective agreement or union raised con- cerns of resources and training. Room for interpretation What form a representative body will take at the RCMP has yet to be determined. Because the Supreme Court judges stopped just shy of outright suggesting a union, it leaves room for interpretation as to what form the collective will take — such as a staff association, an RCMP-led standalone union or even a third- party union, like Unifor. Though the national police force has had a staff association for some time, it yielded only tepid results, said Ann Frost, an associ- ate professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University in London, Ont., who specializes in organizational be- haviour. "They've had a staff associa- tion that basically could meet with management and air grievances, and management had to listen in good faith — however you define that," she explained. "There was no real power behind the staff as- sociation. It's great to have a voice and make your concerns known to management, but when the final decision still rests with manage- ment — there's not a lot of power behind that." It is because of this Frost pre- dicts the Mounties will opt for cer- tification and a definitive union as opposed to a staff association akin to the WestJet flight attendants' association. Despite previous un- successful attempts to unionize at the Calgary-based airline, its employee association managed to bargain a collective agreement. But for Creasser, how the RCMP get there is not as impor- tant as the destination itself. "We're getting caught in se- mantics here," he said. "We want a collectively bargained agreement. Whether we call ourselves a union or an association, at the end of the day, what we want is a legally bind- ing document that will hold peo- ple accountable." The federal government has one year to redraft legislation currently governing the national police force to include the new la- bour relations scheme. Though deaths of RCMP officers in the past year may not have been preventable, they bring to light staff concerns regarding resources — something a union can fight for, according to a labour lawyer. "The RCMp managers could not have done a better job of creating an environment where people want to unionize — and they did."

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