3226-00-U Joel David Sebestyen, Applicant v. CUPE Local 1356 Canadian Union of Public Employees, Responding Party v. York University, Intervenor.
BEFORE: Timothy W. Sargeant, Vice-Chair.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; May 24, 2001
This is an application brought pursuant to section 96 of the Labour Relations Act, 1995, S.O. 1995, c. 1, as amended (the “Act”) that the responding party has breached section 74 of the Act.
The responding party asks that this application be dismissed without a hearing “in that the Applicant voluntarily agreed to withdraw his grievances”.
The applicant alleges in part that the Union “suggested that I sign a waiver of the grievance process so I could go to the Labour Board”. Moreover and in any event the applicant in part alleges that he had a disability that was known to the employer. It is alleged that the applicant asked if the Union would “support me coming in earlier or staying later to complete my required jobs in view of my disability which sometimes makes me slower. I did not want to leave my work for other people to do. I offered to try this without pay. The union would not agree to this and they suggested no alternative”.
The applicant who allegedly suffers from epilepsy was terminated October 31, 2000. The applicant alleges that the union “should have helped me get a fair hearing re my disabilities”.
While the Board will usually not allow an applicant to resile from his/her agreement to withdraw grievances, the Board must be satisfied that such withdrawal was voluntary and not based on misinformation.
Given the pleadings of the applicant which the Board must assume are true for the purposes of deciding whether a hearing should be held, the Board is not prepared to dismiss this application without a hearing. While the applicant may have great difficulty in establishing that his withdrawal of the grievances was not voluntary, the Board cannot at this stage deprive the applicant of an opportunity to have his case heard.
The matter is therefore directed to the registrar to schedule a consultation hearing.
“Timothy W. Sargeant”
for the Board