The complainant, a dependent contractor tandem truck owner-operator, alleged that the union breached its duty of fair representation under section 68 of the Labour Relations Act by negotiating a collective agreement containing arbitrary or discriminatory layoff and truck capacity provisions.
The Board found that the union had objective justification for the layoff provisions, which protected a core group of 16 senior drivers, as a reasonable response to declining work.
However, the Board found that a provision allowing some senior drivers to continue using trucks with a capacity over 24 tons while precluding others, like the complainant, from doing so was patently discriminatory and lacked objective justification.
The Board declared a breach of section 68 regarding the truck capacity provision.
