GSB#2017-0662

UNION# 2017-5112-0134

IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION

Under

THE CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACT

Before

THE GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT BOARD

BETWEEN

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Manna et al)

Union

• and -

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

Employer

BEFORE

Diane Gee

Arbitrator

FOR THE UNION

Ed Holmes Ryder Wright Blair & Holmes LLP Counsel

FOR THE EMPLOYER

Jonathan Rabinovitch Treasury Board Secretariat Legal Services Branch Counsel

HEARING

December 18, 2017 (last submissions received on March 30, 2018)

DECISION

1This matter is a grievance in which it is alleged that the Employer violated the Collective Agreement and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“FIPPA”) as a result of having inadvertently posted personal information pertaining to employees working out of the Toronto South Detention Centre (TDSC) on the “P”(public) drive of the institution’s computer network. The Union seeks monetary damages for each of the individuals in respect of whom information was posted.

2At paragraph 15 of the Union’s Statement of Fact it is indicated that three individuals were removed from the group grievance. At paragraph 10 of the Employer’s Statement of Fact it is indicated that five individuals were removed from the group grievance. I leave it to the parties to resolve this discrepancy.

3This matter is being dealt with pursuant to Article 22.16.2 of the Collective Agreement and, pursuant to Article 22.16.7, this decision is without precedential value. Further, it is impossible to describe the nature of the information posted and the names of any of the grievors without risking further distribution of the information in question. Accordingly, this decision is deliberately brief in nature.

4There is no dispute the information in question was inadvertently posted on the P drive for a relatively short period of time. The facts of this matter are closest to the facts in issue in Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Myciak et al) v. the Crown in Right of Ontario (Ministry of Community and Safety and Correction Services) GSB # 2010-2318, involving an inadvertent breach by the Employer and scant evidence of harm. In Myciak, the Grievance Settlement Board ordered the payment of $3000.00 to the Union for distribution to 53 grievors.

5In this case, there was some variation in the information posted as it relates to the individual grievors. I do not fully accept the basis on which either party has proposed the grievors be grouped for the purposes of damage allocation and therefore direct that all grievors receive an equal amount of damages.

6The information in issue was posted for a shorter period of time and in respect of a fewer number of grievors than was the case in Myciak. I order the Employer to pay the sum of $2000.00 directly to the Union for distribution to the grievors who form the group covered by this grievance.