GSB# 2018-3484

UNION# 2018-0411-0019

IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION

Under

THE CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACT

Before

THE GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT BOARD

BETWEEN

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Mauviel)

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

Michelle LaButte Treasury Board Secretariat Employee Relations Advisor

HEARING

July 10 and September 28, 2020 (by videoconference)

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.

7Gabriel Mauviel is a Fixed Term (“FXT”) Correctional Officer (“CO”) at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre (“OCDC”). He filed a grievance on October 30, 2018 claiming that he was not given his hours to review quarterly in accordance with the terms of the collective agreement, and particularly Appendix COR8. By way of remedy, the grievor seeks to be made whole and to be able to review and dispute all his hours since his start date.

8For the purposes of this grievance, the relevant portion of Appendix COR8 states as follows:

Fixed term employees will have their hours calculated quarterly. These hours will be given to fixed-term employees with a dispute form to be checked and given back to the Employer for final verification. This will be done in order to expedite any further rollovers.

9The Union and Grievor maintain that the Employer at the OCDC is not in compliance with the requirement to calculate FXT hours quarterly and has not been giving FXTs the opportunity to dispute their hours on a quarterly basis so that any issues may be resolved before rollovers occur. The intention of the language was to expedite rollovers, when vacancies arose. Rather, at the OCDC, FXT hours are only calculated and provided after a vacancy has been identified and the parties have agreed through the MERC Agreement how that vacancy is to be filled.

10According to the Employer, Mr. Mauviel’s hours have been calculated quarterly for him, and he was advised that they were available, but he did not pick them up. In any event, the Employer concedes that FXT hours had not historically been prepared quarterly, but that they are now to be done in accordance with the terms of COR8. It has been difficult to provide the hours in the first few months of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact it has had on staffing at the OCDC, but it is the Employer’s intention to meet its’ obligation.

11Having considered the facts and the submissions of the parties, and in light of the language of the collective agreement at Appendix COR8, I declare that the Employer has been in breach of the requirement to provide FXT employees with their hours on a quarterly basis, and to give them the opportunity to dispute their respective calculations, should they wish to do so. As such, the grievance is upheld.