2943-99-ES 846045 Ontario Inc. operating as Condom Companion, Applicant v. Karen Reid, Dolores Dumontier, Employment Standards Officer and Ministry of Labour, Responding Parties.

Employment Practices Branch File No. 13001299

BEFORE: Harry Freedman, Vice-Chair.

DECISION OF THE BOARD; May 11, 2000

1The Ministry of Labour, on May 5, 2000, filed a request for reconsideration of the Board’s decision dated February 8, 2000 extending the time within which the applicant could make this application for review of Order to Pay No. 25071 pursuant to section 68 (4) of the Employment Standards Act, R. S. O. 1990, c. E 14.

2Rule 107 of the Board’s Rules of Procedure provides, in part, “…Rules 94-96 apply to applications under the Employment Standards Act.” Rules 94 to 96 deal with requests for reconsideration. Rule 96 provides:

No request for reconsideration will be considered where it is filed more than 20 days after the date of the Board’s decision, except with the permission of the Board.

The last date upon which a timely request for reconsideration of the Board’s February 8, 2000 decision could have been filed was March 7, 2000. The Ministry’s request was filed with the Board almost two months after that date.

3The Board has the power under Rule 44 to relieve against the strict application of the Rules where it considers it advisable to do so. The Ministry, in its request for reconsideration, does not set out any basis upon which the Board could determine that it was advisable to relieve against the twenty-day time limit within which the request for reconsideration had to be filed. Indeed, the Ministry did not even ask the Board to relieve against the time limit prescribed by Rule 96 despite the clear notice in the form used to file the request for reconsideration which states, in capital letters: “A request for reconsideration will not be considered if it is filed more than twenty days after the date of the Board’s decision, except with the permission of the Board.”

4In the absence of a request to permit the late filing of this request for reconsideration and in the absence of any explanation from the Ministry for filing the request for reconsideration almost two months after the date fixed by the Rules of Procedure, there is no proper basis for the Board to consider this request for reconsideration.

Disposition

5This request for reconsideration is dismissed.

“Harry Freedman”

for the Board