R.O. McDowell

The applicant union sought a declaration under section 1(4) of the Labour Relations Act that the respondent companies constituted one employer.

The respondents conceded the statutory prerequisites were met but argued the Board should exercise its discretion not to make the declaration.

The Board found that while the companies were under common control, the unionized company was largely inactive and there was no siphoning of work from the unionized enterprise to the non-union one.

Furthermore, the union did not represent any of the employees of the non-union company at the time the voluntary recognition agreement was signed.

The Board declined to exercise its discretion to make the declaration and dismissed the application.

The applicants, a group of employees who opted out of a newly negotiated bargaining unit accretion, applied under section 60 of the Labour Relations Act to terminate the union's bargaining rights for the added classifications.

The union and the employer had negotiated an 'opt-in' formula where only employees who explicitly chose union representation were added to the unit.

The Board dismissed the application, finding that the applicants lacked status to bring the challenge because, having opted out, they were not 'employees in the bargaining unit' as required by section 60.