Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre v. Canadian Union of Public Employees, 1999 CanLII 20002

[1999] OLRB REP. MARCH/APRIL 346

2246-98-PS Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Applicant v. Canadian Union of Public Employees; Ontario Nurses Association; Ontario Public Service Employees Union; Service Employees' International Union, Local 204; The Association of Allied Health Professionals: Ontario; Brewery, General and Professional Workers' Union; Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Union, Local 75; Sunnybrook Hospital Employees Union, Local 777; International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 796, Responding Parties

BEFORE: Laura Trachuk, Vice Chair.

APPEARANCES: Barry Brown for the applicant; David Wright, Gayle Lebans, Pat Collyer, Marilyn Youden and Frank Recnegal for OPSEU; Bernard Fishbein and F Newey for IUOE Local 796; Melissa Kronick and John Nelson for HERE Local 75; RajAnand, M. Kate Stephenson and Michael Phillips for Sunnybrook Hospital Employees Union Local 777; Sean Fitzpatrick, Tom Steers and Maria Miguez for SEIU Local 204; James Robbins, D. Ivanochko, John Belton and S. Dankert for CUPE; Susan Ursel, Cynthia Wilkey, Lynn Keays, Catherine Bowman and Bob File for AAHP:O; Pauline Lefebvre-Hinton, Larraine Harper and Carol Perosier for ONA; John McNamee for Brewery, General & Professional Workers Union.

DECISION OF THE BOARD; March 10, 1999

1. This is an application under sections 22 and 23 of the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997 from Sunnybrook and Women's College Hospital Health Sciences Centre (referred to as the "hospital"). The hospital seeks a determination from the Board with respect to the number and descriptions of the bargaining units.

2. The parties had agreed that the Board should first consider the issue of whether there should be separate bargaining units at the Women's College Hospital site or whether the bargaining units should span all three sites. At the consultation on February 26, 1999, the Board ruled that the employees of the hospital should be in bargaining units which span all of the sites. Reasons for that decision will follow in due course.

3. After receiving the above ruling the parties made submissions with respect to the number and general configuration of the bargaining units. This is the Board's decision with respect to those submissions.

4. The hospital is a successor hospital pursuant to an asset transfer from Women's College Hospital to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the amalgamation of the Orthopaedic and Arthritic Hospital with Sunnybrook. The Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre Act provides that the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997 applies to the hospital and that it is a successor hospital under that Act. There are currently 23 bargaining units as follows:

5. Women's College Hospital Site

a) The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) represents two units of registered nurses, one full-time and one part-time.

b) The Service Employees International Union Local 204 (SEIU) represents a unit of full-time office and clerical employees.

c) The Association of Allied Health Professionals: Ontario (AAHP:O) represents a unit of part-time and full-time paramedical employees.

d)The Ontario Public Service Employees' Union (OPSEU) represents a unit of pathology and clinical laboratory employees.

e) The Brewery and General Professional Workers' Union (BGPWU) represents a unit of security guards.

f) The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) represents two units of service employees, one full-time and one part-time.

6. The Orthopaedic and Arthritic Hospital Site

a) CUPE represents one bargaining unit of full-time service employees.

7. The Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Site

a) The BGPWU represents one unit of full-time security guards.

b)The Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) represents two bargaining units of catering and food service workers at McLean House, a part-time unit and a full-time unit.

c) ONA represents two bargaining units of registered nurses, a full-time unit and a part-time unit.

d) The Sunnybrook Hospital Employees' Union Local 777 (SHEU) represents two bargaining units of office and clerical employees, a part-time unit and a full-time unit.

e) SHEU also represents two bargaining units of service employees, a part-time unit and full-time unit.

f) The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) represents a unit of licensed stationary engineers.

8. The parties have agreed that there should be one bargaining unit of full-time and part-time registered nurses.

9. The parties have also agreed that there should be a bargaining unit of full-time and part-time security guards.

10. The parties have also agreed that there should be a bargaining unit of full-time and part-time paramedical employees including pathology and laboratory staff.

11. There are. disputes between the parties with respect to the rest of the bargaining units. After carefully considering the submissions of the parties the Board considers the following configuration of seven bargaining units (including those noted above) to be appropriate.

Stationary Engineers

12. The hospital, the IUOE and SEIU take the position that the stationary engineers should remain in a separate bargaining unit. SHEU and CUPE argue that they should be included in the service unit. After carefully considering the submissions of the parties, the Board finds that it is appropriate to maintain a separate bargaining unit of licensed stationary engineers. While no one claimed that the hospital and the IUOB have an agreement pursuant to section 20 of the Act, the Board has considered the fact that the hospital and the one union which represents these employees agree that they should remain separate. CUPE advises that it has stationary engineers in its service unit but licensed stationary engineers are not required for Women's College Hospital or the Orthopaedic and Arthritic Hospital site. The stationary engineers bargaining unit is essentially a craft unit made up of the licensed stationary engineers who are required by statute to be employed in relation to the plant at the Sunnybrook site. Section 22(2) of the Act while referring to members of a "profession" suggests that craft units, or their professional equivalents, may be maintained unless the result is undue fragmentation. In this case the unit is certainly small. However, as noted above, the hospital and the union which represents these employees are not concerned about fragmentation or the problems which may attend it. The Board has also considered that including these employees in a larger bargaining unit would not facilitate the restructuring given that their work is only performed at one site. Under the circumstances the Board considers it appropriate to maintain the stationary engineers' bargaining unit.

McLean House Employees

13. The hospital, HERE and SEIU take the position that the employees at McLean House should remain in a separate bargaining unit. They agree that the bargaining unit should include both full-time and part-time employees and note that it has been their practice to include them in a single collective agreement in any case. SHEU and CUPE argue that they should be included in a service unit. The Board finds that the McLean House employees should remain in a separate bargaining unit. Again the Board has considered that the hospital and the union which represents these employees agree that a separate bargaining unit should be maintained. McLean House is one of two estates at the Sunnybrook site which can be rented along with their catering facilities for social and business functions. No one has suggested that the employees at the other facility, the Vaughan estate, who are not unionized, should be included in any of the bargaining units. The employees at McLean House are in the very unusual situation of being employees of a hospital, who are engaged in a completely separate enterprise which has nothing to do with health care. Although there are food service employees in the SHEU service unit there is little relationship between the enterprise they are engaged in and the McLean House employees. The McLean House "business" is unaffected by the "amalgamation" and there no reason to use that to subsume these hospitality industry workers into a health service bargaining unit.

The Office and Clerical Unit

14. The hospital is asking that the office and clerical and service bargaining units be combined. All of the unions are requesting that the status quo be maintained, i.e. that there continue to be separate office and clerical and service units. After considering the submissions of the parties the Board finds it appropriate to maintain separate office/clerical and service units. All of the predecessor hospitals had separate office/clerical and service units and all of the representatives of the employees in those units ask that they be maintained. The Board acknowledges that separate office/clerical and service units represents a historical practice based on understandings of work and communities of interest which are no longer very persuasive. Nevertheless, in view of the agreement of the unions, the fact that the separate units represent the status quo at the predecessor hospitals, the size of the units and the fact that maintaining them is unlikely to hinder the restructuring the Board has decided to maintain the separate units. This is not a case where the Board is being asked to fragment a larger unit into separate service and clerical units.

Part-time and Full-time Units

15. The hospital and CUPE are asking that the part-time and full-time units be combined. SHEU and SEIU request that the separate part-time and full-time units be maintained. The historical rationale for maintaining employees which perform the same work in separate bargaining units because they work different hours has even less current persuasiveness than the reasons for separate service and office/clerical units. Furthermore, maintaining employees in separate bargaining units who perform the same work may well hinder the hospital's ability to restructure the workplace.

16. In summary there will be seven bargaining units as follows: one full-time and part-time unit of registered and graduate nurses; one full-time and part-time unit of security guards; one full-time and part-time unit of paramedical employees; one full-time and part-time service unit; one full-time and part-time office and clerical unit; one full-time and part-time unit of McLean House employees and one full-time and part-time unit of stationary engineers.

17. The parties are scheduled to meet with Labour Relations Officer William Jackson on March 23, 1999 to negotiate bargaining unit descriptions and to make vote arrangements. There is also a further hearing date scheduled on April 23, 1999 in case the parties are unable to reach agreement and require further assistance from the Board.