Ontario Labour Relations Board
2943-99-ES 846045 Ontario Inc. operating as Condom Companion, Applicant v. Karen Reid, Dolores Dumontier, Investigating Officer and Ministry of Labour, Responding Parties.
BEFORE: Harry Freedman, Vice-Chair.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; February 8, 2000
This is an application under section 68 of the Employment Standards Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E. 14, as amended (the "Act") for review of Order to Pay No. 25071 dated March 24, 1995. The applicant filed a letter with the Board dated July 29, 1999 in which she sought an extension of the time for filing an “appeal” of the Order to Pay that had been issued more than four years earlier. In that letter the applicant states, among other things, that the first time the applicant became aware of the order was when a collection agency served a third party demand on the applicant’s bank. The applicant’s business, according to the applicant, had been closed on May 22, 1994. The Order to Pay was issued some 10 months after the business had been closed and was sent to the applicant’s former business address. The applicant states that it was never received. Thus, it appears from the file that there are objective facts supporting the applicant’s assertion that it had never been aware of the Order to Pay until a third party demand was served on the applicant’s bank.
That letter of July 29, 1999 was not processed by the Board as an application under section 68 of the Act. The Registrar advised the applicant that the application was not filed on the correct form. The correct form was forwarded to the applicant and the application on Form A-69 was completed and filed with the Board on December 30, 1999. The Form A-69 application was dated by the applicant as having been signed on August 9, 1999. There is no indication as to why the application only arrived at the Board at the end of December. There was nothing in the file material indicating when that application was forwarded to the Board but the date on the form suggests that the applicant was acting quickly to have the review processed. Although the applicant had filed the correct form, the amount required by the Order to Pay had not been paid to the Director in Trust. The applicant had paid the gross wages required, but had not paid the additional administration costs. The Registrar advised the applicant by letter dated January 19, 2000 that the application remained incomplete because the requisite amount had still not been paid to the Director in trust. The applicant, by letter dated February 1, 2000 made the additional payment to the Director in trust and renewed the request for an extension of time to make the application.
Section 68 of the Act requires that an application for review be filed within 45 days of the date of Order to Pay. The application on the correct form was filed with the Board well beyond the time stipulated for making an application for review; however, the applicant’s letter requesting an extension of time to make the application was filed within days of the applicant learning of the existence order to pay. Section 68 (4) of the Act permits the Board to extend the time for applying for a review if it considers it appropriate to do so. In the circumstances of this case, where the applicant has moved expeditiously, it appears, to proceed with the application for review as soon as it learned of the order and promptly completed and signed the application for review when she received the correct form, the Board considers it appropriate to extend the time for filing the application for review to February 4, 2000, the date by which the entire payment was made to the Director in trust and all of the material in support of the application had been filed with the Board.
Disposition
The time for making this application for review is hereby extended to February 4, 2000, the date upon which the entire application was properly filed with the Board.
This matter is referred to the Registrar.
“Harry Freedman”
for the Board