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Board adjourns Minister's referral to allow parties to focus on bargaining their first collective agreement.
The Minister of Labour referred questions to the Ontario Labour Relations Board regarding whether the employer is a 'hospital' under the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act and whether the Minister can rescind a 'no board' notice.
The Board adjourned the proceedings to allow the parties to focus on bargaining their first collective agreement, noting that litigation would negatively impact negotiations.
The matter was rescheduled, and the parties were directed to meet and bargain in good faith.
Board allows union displacement certification application to proceed despite ongoing hospital restructuring under Bill 136.
The Canadian Health Care Workers (CHCW) filed a certification application to displace the incumbent union, SEIU, for service employees at Parkwood Hospital and McCormick Home.
Shortly after, SEIU filed an application under the newly enacted Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act (Bill 136), arguing that an ongoing restructuring transferring Parkwood to St. Joseph's Health Centre barred the certification application.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board held that Bill 136 did not automatically bar the certification application and declined to exercise its discretion to apply Bill 136 retroactively to halt the proceeding.
The Board directed that the representation ballots be counted, treating the employees at the two facilities as separate voting constituencies.
Certification application dismissed; proposed bargaining unit of GFT secretaries found inappropriate due to fragmentation concerns.
The applicant union applied for certification to represent a bargaining unit consisting solely of Geographic Full-Time (GFT) secretaries employed by the responding hospital.
The hospital argued that the GFT secretaries did not constitute an appropriate bargaining unit and should be included in a larger unit of all clerical and administrative employees.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board found that while GFT secretaries had some distinct characteristics, such as precarious job security tied to individual physicians and a history of separate association, creating a separate bargaining unit for them would cause undue fragmentation and serious labour relations problems.
The Board concluded that the proposed unit was not viable for collective bargaining and dismissed the application.
Board upholds grievance, finding 1962 working agreement validly created bargaining rights that were not abandoned.
The applicant union referred a grievance to arbitration under section 124 of the Labour Relations Act, alleging the respondent general contractor violated the Provincial ICI Agreement by subcontracting electrical work to a non-union contractor.
The respondent argued it was not bound by the 1962 working agreement, asserting it was signed without authority, under duress, or was an invalid pre-hire agreement since the respondent never directly hired electricians.
The respondent alternatively argued the union had abandoned any bargaining rights.
The Board held the 1962 working agreement was validly executed, constituted a series of voluntary recognition agreements, and was not abandoned.
The grievance was upheld.
Ministry of Labour reports ruled admissible in argument to show mischief prior to legislative amendments.
The applicant sought to introduce a report and supplementary report prepared for the Ministry of Labour in 1980 by George W. Adams to show the mischief that existed prior to certain amendments to the Labour Relations Act.
The respondent objected to their admissibility.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled that the reports were admissible for the purpose sought by the applicant.
The Board directed the parties to file written submissions on the probative value of the material.
