Pauline Stoddart v. Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Citation: 1996 CanLII 11179 (ON LRB) Date: February 19, 1996 File No.: 3163-95-R
Before: K. G. O'Neil, Vice-Chair, and Board Members 0. R. McGuire and C. McDonald.
Appearances: Pauline Stoddart, Pamela Wayne and Brent Price for the applicant; Richard A. Blair, Barbara Linds, Ed Ogibowski and Carole Whitehead for the responding party.
DECISION OF THE BOARD
1This is an application for termination of bargaining rights. The Board (differently constituted) in a decision dated January 12, 1996 ordered the matter set down for hearing on two issues: the timeliness of the application and whether or not the application should be entertained in view of the fact that it is the third application for termination in respect of the same bargaining unit in a short period of time.
Timeliness
2The application was sent to the Board by registered mail on November 17, 1995 and received by the Board on November 24, 1995. A conciliation officer was appointed on November 17, 1995. These facts must be seen in the context of section 67(2) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 which provides as follows:
67.-(2) Where notice has been given under section 59 and the Minister has appointed a conciliation officer or a mediator, no application for certification of a bargaining agent of any of the employees in the bargaining units as defined in the collective agreement and no application for a declaration that the trade union that was a party to the collective agreement no longer represents the employees in the bargaining unit as defined in the agreement shall be made after the date when the agreement ceased to operated or the date when the Minister appointed a conciliation officer or a mediator, whichever is later, unless following the appointment of a conciliation officer or a mediator, if no collective agreement has been made,
(a) at least 12 months have elapsed from the date of the appointment of the conciliation officer or a mediator;
(b) a conciliation board or a mediator has been appointed and 30 days have elapsed after the report of the conciliation board or the mediator has been released by the Minister to the parties; or
(c) 30 days have elapsed after the Minister has informed the parties that he or she does not consider it desirable to appoint a conciliation board,
whichever is later.
[emphasis added]
Pursuant to section 67(2) of the Act, the Board is not able to entertain applications for termination once a conciliation officer has been appointed until the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) to (c) have transpired. It is not suggested that any of those events have taken place on the facts before us. The union takes the position that the Board's Interim Rules of Procedure apply to this situation so that the application should be counted as made on the date it was received, November 24. Since this is after November 17, the date the conciliation officer was appointed, the union says the application is untimely.
3The union's position is based on the application of the Board's Interim Rules of Procedure which provide as follows:
INTERIM CERTIFICATION AND TERMINATION RULES
Commencement
43h. These Rules come into effect on the day on which the Labour Relations and Employment Statute Law Amendment Act, 1995 receives Royal Assent.
Application
43i. These Rules amend the Board's Rules of Procedure, which continue to apply, except to the extent that they conflict with these interim Rules. These Rules apply only to applications for certification and to applications for termination of bargaining rights filed on or after the day on which these Rules come into effect and Rules 43 to 56 do not apply