E. Coetzee

The applicant union filed displacement applications for certification seeking to represent service employees at the Trenton Memorial Hospital site of the Quinte Healthcare Corporation.

The responding hospital and the incumbent union argued the applications were barred by an agreement made under the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997 (PSLRTA) following a hospital amalgamation.

The Board found that the incumbent union, acting as the bargaining agent for multiple existing bargaining units, could validly enter into a section 20(2) PSLRTA agreement with the employer to consolidate the units.

As a valid agreement was in effect prior to the application date, the applications were barred and dismissed without a representation vote.

The applicant trade union applied for certification to displace the incumbent union.

The issue was whether the application was timely.

The parties were subject to the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act (HLDAA) and an interest arbitration board had issued an award that remitted the issue of lay-off and recall language back to the parties for negotiation.

The Board held that the interest arbitration award was not a final decision on all matters in dispute, and therefore the 90-day extension period under s. 10(12) of the HLDAA had not yet commenced.

Consequently, the application for certification was premature and untimely, and was dismissed.

The applicant union, Local 75, brought an application under section 64 of the Labour Relations Act claiming that the business of the Skyline Triumph Hotel had been transferred to the responding parties, Accomodex and Kelloryn, who reopened it as a Howard Johnson Hotel.

The responding parties argued it was merely a transfer of idle assets following a closure and receivership.

The Board found that the transaction constituted a sale of a business within the meaning of the Act, as the new owners acquired the core asset configuration and continued to operate the same kind of business from the same location, thereby preserving the union's bargaining rights.