The complainant, a hospital employee, was discharged and sought to file a grievance.
He informed a union steward that he needed to travel out of town urgently and asked if delaying the grievance filing by a week would be a problem.
The steward assured him it would not, despite knowing the collective agreement required discharge grievances to be filed within three days.
As a result, the hospital denied the grievance as untimely.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board found the union's conduct constituted gross negligence and arbitrary representation in violation of section 68 of the Labour Relations Act.
The Board ordered the union to take the grievance to arbitration on the merits and to bear the burden of any compensation attributable to the delay.
