Board has jurisdiction over tree seedling nursery employees as they are employed in silviculture, not horticulture.
The applicants filed unfair labour practice complaints against the responding party, a tree seedling nursery.
The employer raised a preliminary objection that the Board lacked jurisdiction because the applicants were employed in horticulture, which is excluded under section 3(c) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995.
The applicants argued they were employed in silviculture, an exception to the horticulture exclusion.
After reviewing expert evidence and caselaw, the Board concluded that the employer's primary business was producing tree seedlings for reforestation efforts and that the employees performing that work were employed in silviculture.
Consequently, the Act applied, and the Board had jurisdiction to entertain the applications.
Susan Wolframe, Carole Fawcett and Ethel Kemp v. Hill's Greenhouses Ltd., 1997 CanLII 15564
