On an appeal from judicial review proceedings, the court considered the standard of review applicable to a labour arbitrator’s interpretation of a collective agreement governing hiring hall dispatches in the construction industry.
The arbitrator had concluded that dispatch and name-hire provisions limited the employer’s otherwise broad management right to hire and select workers, and that the employer breached the agreement by refusing to employ a properly dispatched, qualified union member who had not been terminated for cause.
The court held that the appropriate standard of review was reasonableness, determined through the pragmatic and functional approach, and that the certiorari language in the governing statute did not displace that analysis.
Applying reasonableness, the court found the arbitrator’s interpretation rational and within the range of acceptable outcomes, restored the award, and granted costs to the union throughout.
