GSB# 2017-1423; 2017-1424; 2017-1425; 2017-1531

UNION# 2017-0229-0015; 2017-0229-0016; 2017-0229-0017; 2017-0229-0020

IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION

Under

THE CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACT

Before

THE GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT BOARD

BETWEEN

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Beale)

Union

• and -

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

Employer

BEFORE

D.J.D. Leighton Arbitrator

FOR THE UNION

Gregg Gray Ontario Public Service Employees Union Grievance Officer

FOR THE EMPLOYER

Laura McDonald Treasury Board Secretariat Employee Relations Advisor

HEARING

January 9, 2020

DECISION

1Ms. Susan Beale, a Social Worker Supervisor, at Ontario Correctional Institute, filed four grievances from May 10 to August 11, 2017, alleging, essentially, that a job competition for a management position was flawed and unfair. She seeks an order that the employer put her into the management position in question or to rerun the competition.

2The employer takes the position that this Board has no jurisdiction to hear a complaint about a management job competition. The ministry seeks a ruling on a preliminary motion to dismiss the grievances for lack of jurisdiction, relying on longstanding decisions of the board that have held that a bargaining unit member cannot grieve a competition for a management position at the Grievance Settlement Board.

3The parties referred this grievance to mediation/arbitration in accordance with Article 22.16 of the collective agreement. At the outset of the hearing, the parties agreed that I had the jurisdiction to deal with this matter. They asked that I issue a decision without precedent or prejudice, and without written reasons.

4Having carefully considered the evidence put before me, including documents submitted by the union, the submissions of the parties, as well as the jurisprudence of the Board, I hereby grant the employer’s motion to dismiss the grievances for lack of jurisdiction. The grievances are hereby dismissed.