The applicant referred a grievance to arbitration under section 124 of the Labour Relations Act, alleging that the respondents' assignment of certain construction work to another union violated the collective agreement.
The respondents and the other union raised a preliminary objection, arguing that the grievance was essentially a jurisdictional dispute, which ousted the Board's jurisdiction under section 124.
The Board dismissed the objection, holding that while it may defer a section 124 grievance to a jurisdictional dispute proceeding under section 91 or a collective agreement mechanism as a matter of policy, its jurisdiction under section 124 is not ousted.
The Board also ruled that evidence regarding the collective agreement's dispute resolution mechanism was relevant to determining whether it should defer.
