N. B. Sattenfleld

The complainants, representing plumbers and electricians, challenged the general contractor's assignment of the installation of patient service modules at a hospital construction project to carpenters and labourers.

While area past practice strongly favoured assigning such work to plumbers and electricians via subcontracts, the general contractor had no collective agreement with the complainants and had assigned the work to its own employees, with whom it had collective agreements.

The Board upheld the assignment to the carpenters and labourers, noting that directing the work to the complainants would effectively require the general contractor to subcontract the work due to the electricians' restrictive hiring practices.