1192-00-R Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Applicant v. City of Owen Sound; Grey Bruce Health Services; Hanover and District Hospital; and National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-Canada), Responding Parties v. Owen Sound Professional Fire Fighters Association, Local 531, Intervenor.
BEFORE: Christopher J. Albertyn, Vice-Chair, and Board Members J. A. Ronson and D. A. Patterson.
APPEARANCES: David Wright, Ed Ogibowski, Terry Moore and Peter Shaw for the applicant; John Saunders, Bill Millman, Dail Levesque and Paul Robson for City of Owen Sound; Ken Lawrence, David Cruickshank, Don Roy, Jim Byatt and Bruce Carpenter for the intervenor.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; May 4, 2001
1This is a section 69 application. The matter is part-heard. The principal parties have concluded an Interim Protocol which is operative between them, pending the determination of the application by the Board. The parties seek that the following portions of the Protocol are incorporated within a decision of the Board:
INTERIM PROTOCOL
BETWEEN:
Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union
(“OPSEU”)
-and-
The City of Own Sound
(“The Employer”)
-and-
The Owen Sound Professional Fire Fighters Association
(“The Association”)
WHEREAS there is a dispute between the parties respecting bargaining and representation rights for a group of paramedics formerly employed by Grey Bruce Health Services, Hanover and District Hospital, Ministry of Health, and Owen Sound Emergency Services and hired by the Employer effective January 1, 2001,
AND WHEREAS the parties agree that neither party wishes nor intends to encroach upon, or in any way interfere with, the bargaining rights and rights of representation of the other, the parties agree to enter into the following permanent agreement with prejudice:
In the event that the OLRB rules that paramedics are not firefighters under the FPPA, then the Employer agrees that it will employ the paramedics in a separate bargaining unit from the firefighters. The Association will continue to represent individual already hired by the Employer to be firefighters.
The Employer agrees that in the event that the OLRB rules that the appropriate bargaining agent for the paramedics is an entity other than the Association, no paramedics will be assigned firefighter duties in accordance with article 19.01 of the existing collective agreement between the Employer and the Association.
OPSEU and the Association agree that at such time in the future that any paramedic is determined to be a firefighter within the meaning of the FPPA by the OLRB or pursuant to paragraph 12 below, the Association will become the representative for those firefighters. OPSEU agrees that it will not seek to represent or apply for representational rights in respect of firefighters represented by the OSPFFA.
Any individual hired after January 1, 2001 into the Owen Sound Fire Department to be firefighter will be deemed to be a firefighter represented by the Association. Any individual hired after January 1, 2001 to be a paramedic will be deemed to be a paramedic represented by OPSEU until such time as the OLRB makes its final determination in this matter as to whether the paramedics are firefighters for the purposes of the FPPA.
OPSEU, the Association, and the City of Owen Sound agree that they will establish a dispute resolution mechanism to address any disputes which may arise as to whether a person within the OPSEU bargaining unit is or has become a firefighter within the meaning of the FPPA. . The dispute resolution mechanism will include mediation and, in the event that the issue is not resolved by mediation, binding arbitration before an arbitrator mutually agreed upon by the parties. The arbitrator shall be governed by the provisions of section 48 of the OLRA.
The permanent and with prejudice portion of this agreement is to be incorporated as an order of the OLRB with the panel of C. Albertyn, J. Ronson and C. Patterson [sic] seized with regard to its implementation.
Dated at Owen Sound on this 12 day of March , 2001.
For OPSEU:
“Terry Moore”
For The Association:
“Ken Lawrence”
For The Employer:
“Dail Levesque”
2The Board directs that the parties to the Protocol are bound by it.
“Christopher J. Albertyn”
for the Board