Canadian Labour Reporter

8 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 ARBITRATION AWARDS April 11, 2016 Fund and to the Alberta Carpen- ter Training and Apprenticeship Competition Fund. Contributions to the programs in question were to be made with respect to every hour worked by each employee. In addition to making the required contri- butions by the 15th day of each month, the employer was also re- quired to report the particulars of the wages and contributions. While the employer made the necessary reports for the months of July and August in 2015, it did not make its contributions in a timely manner. Furthermore, the employer failed to provide reports or make contributions for the months of September, October, November and December. On Dec. 11, 2015, the union filed a grievance. D.P. Jones was appointed as arbitrator and a hearing was scheduled. The employer provided the union with a report of hours worked by employees in Septem- ber and October, but stated no employees worked in Novem- ber or December. Further, the employer informed the union through email that its representa- tive would attempt to attend the hearing but would likely arrive late. The union replied that the employer had never indicated it required additional time to prepare for the hearing and that, because the nature of the grievance required immediate action, the hearing would not be adjourned. The hearing was convened on Jan. 18 and no representative ap- peared for the employer. Jones agreed with the union that it was not appropriate to adjourn the hearing considering the circum- stances and instead granted an award requiring the employer to pay its outstanding contributions for the Health and Wellness Plan, the Pension Plan and the Alberta Carpenter Training and Appren- ticeship Competition Fund for July and August in the amount of $61,597.62 within seven days of the issuance of the award. Jones also ordered the employ- er to provide the union with infor- mation regarding the number of hours worked by employees dur- ing the months of September, Oc- tober, November and December. Additionally, the award re- quired the employer to pay the contributions required for the months of September, October, November and December within seven days of the issuance of the award. Finally, the employer was or- dered to pay $4,433.85 for the costs of the arbitrator within seven days of the issuance of the award. Reference: Drytec Interiors and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 1325. D.P. Jones — ar- bitrator. Patrick Nugent for the union. Jan. 20, 2016. Union well within rights to post political notices CONTROVERSIAL posters led to the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 21 filing a griev- ance against the City of Regina. The employer ordered the union to remove posters it had placed on workplace notice boards urging members to sup- port the "yes" side in an upcoming city-wide referendum. The refer- endum concerned the plan to im- pose a public-private partnership (P3) to operate the city's waste wa- ter treatment facility. While the union was a part of a coalition strongly opposed to the P3 project, the City of Regina's city council had unanimously endorsed the P3 approach. The union complied with the employ- er's directive to remove the post- ers but filed a grievance demand- ing the employer be required to refrain from interfering with union notices in the future. According to the union, the parties' collective agreement gave it the right to put up posters with- out employer approval. The em- ployer's order to remove the post- ers violated the agreement as well as the union's freedom of expres- sion under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The union regularly posts no- tices on about 60 notice boards, the majority of which are in work- place locations not normally open to the public. Traditionally, the union posts notices concerning regular membership meetings, social events, contact information for union representatives and per- sonal announcements like births. The posters in question called on members to "PLEDGE TO VOTE YES" and asked employ- ees "On Sept 25 vote to Keep wa- ter public." The union argued this notice was well within the restric- tions of the collective agreement, which stated the employer is re- quired to provide notice boards for the sole use of the union, for the purpose of posting notices "of interest" to the union. The employer, however, argued the contentious, high-profile na- ture of the P3 campaign made the posters by definition argumenta- tive, provocative and inflamma- tory. Encouraging employees to vote against the P3 model was overtly political, the employer said, and while the union had a right to launch a campaign in the media it did not have the right to wage a campaign in the workplace. The arbitration board — made up of chair Allen Ponak, employer nominee Larry Leblanc and union nominee Merv Simonot — sus- tained the union's grievance. "In our view," the board said in its decision, "the information contained in the referendum poster that the union posted on workplace notice boards was con- sistent with its rights under the collective bargaining agreement and did not contain language, depictions, or encouragement that might run afoul of accepted standards for workplace notice boards." Unions have significant wiggle room to post notices in the work- place as long as they do not inter- fere with the management's con- trol and direction of the workforce or promote disobedience or la- bour relations conflict, the board said. The relevant language in the parties' collective agreement con- tained no express restrictions, the board found, and if the parties had wished to place limitations on what might be posted, they could have easily done so. With respect to remedy, the board simply made a declara- tory ruling that the collective agreement was violated when the employer directed the union to remove its posters from union no- tice boards. Reference: City of Regina and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 21. Arbitration board — Allen Ponak, chair; Larry Leblanc, employer nominee; Merv Simonot, union nominee. Jim McLellan for the employer, Guy Marsden for the union. March 6, 2016. < Arbitration pg. 1 The relevant language in the collective agreement contained no express restrictions.

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