Otto Kauffmann v. Ministry of Labour
File No.: 2931-99-ES Date: February 4, 2000
Before: David A. McKee, Vice-Chair.
DECISION OF THE BOARD
1This file concerns an Order to Pay issued on September 24, 1999 under the Employment Standards Act, R.S.O. 1990, Ch. E-14, as amended (“the Act”). On December 13, 1999 the Board received a photocopy of a receipt for the payment to the Director of Employment Standards in trust of the amount set out in the Order to Pay. On the cover page of this receipt is written the word “APPEAL”. There is no indication as to where this document was originally delivered.
2On January 5, 2000 the applicant was advised by the Registrar as follows:
“Your application for review under the Employment Standards Act is being returned to you, without the Board having processed it, because the application was not filed on the correct form and/or because the application was sent to the Board by facsimile transmission. Your application does not comply with the Board’s Rules of Procedure.
The Board’s new Rules of Procedure (including its new forms, notices and information bulletins) came into effect on August 1, 1999. Those Rules require that every case be started by completing and filing the proper application form and by filing any other document required by the Rules: Rule 24. Your application must be filed with the Board within 20 working days from the date of this letter. Rules 16 and 17 provide that an application may be filed with Board in any manner except facsimile transmission, Registered Mail or e‑mail.
If you wish to re-submit your application, you must comply with the Board’s new Rules, including Rules 16, 17 and 24. In order to assist you, we are enclosing a copy of the Board’s new Rules of Procedure, a copy of the correct application form
(Form A-69), and a copy of Information Bulletin No. 23 – Applications for Review under the Employment Standards Act”.
3The applicant has not replied to this letter.
4The obligation to file an appeal in the proper form is not merely a technical requirement. Absent from this purported “appeal” is the address of the employee, the section of the statute under which the review is made, and the reason for the application. Procedural fairness requires that the parties opposed to the applicant have some idea of the basis of his dispute.
5In the absence of any response from the applicant, this application is dismissed. The Director is directed to pay the monies held in trust to the employee and to retain the statutory administration costs for payment into the consolidated revenue fund.
“David A. McKee”
for the Board