GSB# 2018-3717

UNION# 2019-5112-0015

IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION

Under

THE CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACT

Before

THE GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT BOARD

BETWEEN

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Lu)

Union

• and -

The Crown in Right of Ontario (Ministry of the Solicitor General)

Employer

BEFORE

Gail Misra

Arbitrator

FOR THE UNION

Dan Sidsworth Ontario Public Service Employees Union Grievance Officer

FOR THE EMPLOYER

Al J. Quinn Ministry of the Solicitor General Employee Transition Manager

HEARING

July 19, 2019 and December 19, 2019

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 (now, the Ministry of the Solicitor General) 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 these 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.

7Harvey Lu is a Correctional Officer at the Toronto South Detention Centre who filed a grievance on January 30, 2019 claiming that as a result of an Employer error in changing his start date in HPRO, he was not offered a position for which he had applied via an Expression of Interest ("EOI") in 2018. The grievor is concerned that his start date in HPRO has still not been properly recorded, and as such could influence other seniority-based entitlements. He seeks the rectification of his seniority date as well as compensation for the missed career development opportunity presented by the EOI.

8Based on the parties' submissions, it is clear that Mr. Lu's Continuous Service Date ("CSD") is correct. While the grievor was hired as a fixed term contract CO on December 16, 2013, that is not his CSD. Once Mr. Lu was rolled over into a permanent full time CO position effective September 26, 2016, his CSD was calculated based on the number of weeks that the grievor had worked full time, 40 hours per week. Any weeks in which he had not worked 40 hours do not get counted towards the calculation of his CSD. It was as a result of that calculation that Mr. Lu saw his CSD change in HPRO to April 28, 2014, and I am satisfied that is the correct date based on his full time weeks worked prior to his roll over.

9Having considered the facts and the submissions of the parties, and for the reasons outlined above, this grievance is denied.