Ontario Labour Relations Board
File No.: 1388-98-ES Date: September 24, 1998
Between: Boris Velman, Applicant v. Ministry of Labour, Responding Party
Before: Lee Shouldice, Vice-Chair.
DECISION OF THE BOARD
1The applicant has filed with the Board an application for review of an Order to Pay pursuant to section 68 of the Employment Standards Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.14, as amended (hereinafter "the Act"). By decision dated July 22, 1998, this panel of the Board indicated to the applicant and the Ministry of Labour that the application could not be processed any further as it was filed in an untimely manner, without the payment to the Director of Employment Standards of the sum ordered paid by the Employment Standards Officer. The applicant was invited to pay the sum in question to the Director of Employment Standards (or to obtain an acceptable letter of credit, as is permitted by the Act), and to request an extension of the time for applying for review.
2To date, the Board has received nothing to suggest that the money in question has been paid to the Director in trust, or that an acceptable letter of credit has been provided to the Director of Employment Standards. Furthermore, the applicant has not requested an extension of time for properly filing this application. The Board did receive, from the Director of Employment Standards, correspondence dated August 31, 1998, in which the following is stated:
We have been in contact with Mr. Velman and we have been advised that arrangements are being made, with Mr. Velman's bankers for an irrevocable letter of credit. If the Branch receives the letter of credit in the form and amount which was discussed, I will consider it acceptable for the purposes of subsection 68(7) of the Employment Standards Act. We are expecting the letter of credit within days.
In the circumstances, we would ask that the Labour Relations Board process the application. We would n not oppose the director's request to extend the time to apply for a reasonable period beyond the 45 days to permit time to provide me with the letter of credit. We will advise once the letter of credit is received.
No such advice has bee received by the Board.
3Although the Director of Employment Standards has asked the Board to process this proceeding, the Board is unwilling to do so, without confirmation that the sum in question, or an acceptable, irrevocable letter of credit in accordance with the Act, has bee paid to or received by the Director of Employment Standards. The applicant has not yet requested that the time for properly applying for review be extended in accordance with section 68(4) of the Act.
4The Director of Employment Standards and the applicant may not consider this proceeding to be sufficiently important to place a high priority upon it. Those employees who are entitled to be paid certain monies owed to them (in accordance with a currently outstanding, valid Order to Pay issued by an Employment Standards Officer) may see it differently. The Board is unwilling to wait until the Director of Employment Standards and the applicant consider it convenient to proceed with this application.
5Accordingly, the Board directs that a copy of this decision be sent to the parties and also to the Director of Employment Standards. The Board will provide the parties until October 2, 1998 to advise whether the monies in question have been paid to the Director of Employment Standards, or, in the alternative, whether an acceptable, irrevocable letter of credit has been provided to the Director of Employment Standards. In the event that the Board is not so advised, this application will be deemed to be dismissed as abandoned. In the event that the Board is advised that the Director has received sufficient monies or a satisfactory letter of credit, the applicant is directed to advise the Board, no later than October 2, 1998, why the Board ought to extend the time for applying for review, in accordance with section 68(4) of the Act. In the event that the applicant does not do so, the application will be deemed dismissed by the Board as abandoned.