GSB#2016-0897

UNION#2015-0708-0014

IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION

Under

THE CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACT

Before

THE GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT BOARD

BETWEEN

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Peters)

Union

• and -

The Crown in Right of Ontario (Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services)

Employer

BEFORE

Felicity D. Briggs

Vice-Chair

FOR THE UNION

Dan Sidsworth Ontario Public Service Employees Union Grievance Officer

FOR THE EMPLOYER

Greg Gledhill Treasury Board Secretariat Centre for Employee Relations Employee Relations Advisor

HEARING

November 3 & 25, 2016

Decision

1Since the spring of 2000 the parties have been meeting regularly to address matters of mutual interest which have arisen as the result of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services as well as the Ministry of Children and Youth Services restructuring initiatives around the Province. Through the MERC (Ministry Employment Relations Committee) a subcommittee was established to deal with issues arising from the transition process. The parties have negotiated a series of MERC agreements setting out the process for how organizational changes will unfold for Correctional and Youth Services staff and for non Correctional and non Youth Services staff.

2The parties agreed that this Board would remain seized of all issues that arise through this process and it is this agreement that provides me the jurisdiction to resolve the outstanding matters.

3Over the years as some institutions and/or youth centres decommissioned or reduced in size others were built or expanded. The parties have made efforts to identify vacancies and positions and the procedures for the filling of those positions as they become available.

4The parties have also negotiated a number of agreements that provide for the “roll-over” of fixed term staff to regular (classified) employee status.

5Hundreds of grievances have been filed as the result of the many changes that have taken place at provincial institutions. The transition subcommittee has, with the assistance of this Board, mediated numerous disputes. Others have come before this Board for disposition.

6It was determined by this Board at the outset that the process for this disputes would be somewhat more expedient. To that end, grievances are presented by way of statements of fact and succinct submissions. On occasion clarification has been sought from grievors and institutional managers at the request of the Board. This process has served the parties well. The decisions are without prejudice but attempt to provide guidance for future disputes.

7Ms. Julie Peters was a fixed term Correctional Officer at the Thunder Bay Jail who filed a grievance alleging that the Employer violated the Collective Agreement because her “conversion from fixed term to full time was unnecessarily delayed in violation with Appendix 24, COR Appendix 8 and COR 19”.

8Considerable documentation was provided from the Union and the Employer regarding this grievance. A number of roll-overs have occurred at the Thunder Bay Jail. Like every other institution there was a qualification in the Expression of Interest that in order to be eligible for roll-over a Correctional Officer must have been employed at that particular facility for a period of one year as set out in the agreement of the parties.

9The grievor had been working at the Kenora Jail until a transfer of her contract to the Thunder Bay Jail effective February 11, 2013. Accordingly she was not entitled to be rolled-over into classified status at the Thunder Bay Jail as the result of a Memorandum of Agreement signed prior to February 11, 2014 because she had not been with the Thunder Bay Jail for the specified one year period.

10The next roll-over exercise at the TBJ was undertaken as the result of a Memorandum of Agreement signed by the parties on March 27, 2014. The grievor was not rolled over into classified status at this time because she had less hours than others and for that reason she was not eligible.

11In September of 2014 the parties agreed to roll-over more fixed term Correctional Officers at the Thunder Bay jail and that time the grievor had sufficient hours that she was eligible. She was rolled over into classified status without any undue delay.

12Accordingly the grievance is dismissed.