Ontario Labour Relations Board
3876-00-ES Lori Langstaff, Applicant v. ABS Community Vision and Ministry of Labour, Responding Parties.
BEFORE: Christopher J. Albertyn, Vice-Chair.
DECISION OF THE BOARD; July 19, 2001
This is an employee appeal under section 68 of the Employment Standards Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.14, as amended (“the Act”') against the refusal by an Employment Standards Officer to issue an Order to Pay in the applicant's favour.
The Employment Standards Officer refused to issue an Order because the applicant filed her claim outside of the statutory time period within which a claim must be brought. The period is stated in section 82.3(1) of the Act, which reads:
82.3 (1) In a prosecution or proceeding under the Act, no person is entitled to recover money that became due to the person more than six months before the date on which the facts upon which the prosecution or proceeding is based first come to the knowledge of the Director.
The provision is peremptory. The applicant explains that she thought she had a year within which to bring her claim. Her misconception is understandable because a year used to be the period by which a claim had to be filed before the 1996 amendment of the Act. She accepts that her claim relates to a period more than 6 months prior to when she informed the Employment Standards branch of the Ministry of Labour thereof.
In the circumstances the Employment Standards Officer to whom the applicant’s claim was submitted had no jurisdiction to pursue it on her behalf. Similarly the Board has no jurisdiction to review the matter.
The application is therefore dismissed.
“Christopher J. Albertyn”
for the Board