Board finds majority of disputed electrical work at refinery was construction, not maintenance, breaching collective agreement.
The applicant union filed a grievance alleging that the responding party employer breached the provincial collective agreement by applying a maintenance agreement to various electrical work projects at a refinery.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board was asked to determine whether eight specific items of work were 'construction' or 'maintenance'.
The Board declined to defer to a prior determination by the General Presidents' Maintenance Committee.
Applying the Master Insulators test, the Board analyzed the context and purpose of each project.
It concluded that seven of the eight items involved additions or enhancements to the systems and were therefore 'construction' work, while one item was 'maintenance'.
The employer was found to have breached the collective agreement with respect to the construction work.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 353 v. Delta Catalytic Industrial Services Ltd., 1997 CanLII 15544
