The Society of Ontario Hydro Professional and Administrative Employees filed an application and complaint asserting that its existing agreements with Ontario Hydro constituted a collective agreement under the Labour Relations Act.
Ontario Hydro and an intervener argued that the agreements were not a collective agreement and that the Society was estopped from asserting otherwise.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board held that the doctrine of estoppel could apply to prevent a party from asserting that an agreement is a collective agreement under the Act.
Finding that the Society had historically represented to Hydro that their agreements were outside the Act, and that Hydro had relied on these representations in entering into the 1983 Master Agreement, the Board concluded that the Society was estopped from now claiming the agreements constituted a collective agreement.
The application and complaint were dismissed.
