0054-90 Belleville General Hospital, Applicant v. Ontario Nurses' Association, Respondent; 0056-90 Royal Ottawa Hospital, Applicant v. Ontario Nurses' Association, Respondent; 0057-90 York Finch General Hospital, Applicant v. Ontario Nurses' Association, Respondent; Ontario Nurses' Association, Applicant v. Respondent Hospitals, Respondents (File Numbers attached as Appendix “A”)
Before : Mary Ellen. Cummings, Vice-Chair; Bruce Budd and Sharon Laing, Members
Cite As: Respondent Hospitals (No.2) (1992), 3 P.E.R. 185
Practice and Procedure - Adjournments
A respondent cannot prevent an applicant from seeking the relisting of its application for hearing. There were no compelling reasons to grant a further adjournment. The Hospitals' applications were listed for hearing with their corresponding ONA cross-applications.
Pratique et procédure - Ajournements
Unintimé ne peut empêcher un requérant de demanderune réinscriptionde sa requêteaurôle d'audience. Il n'y avait pas non plus de raison contraignante d'accorder l'ajournement demandé. Les requêtes des hôpitaux ont été inscrites au rôle d'audience avec les contre-requêtes correspondantes de l'Association.
DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL, OCTOBER 14, 1992
1On request of thepartiestheTribunaladjourned121applicationspending the release of the reasons fordecisioninthe Women's College Hospital cases (TribunalFile Numbers0008-89, 0011-89, 0018-89, 0029-89, 0034-89 and 0036-89). In the adjournment decisions, the Tribunal ordered the applicants to advise the Tribunal within 30 days of the release of the reasons for decision in the Women's College Hospital cases of their intention to proceed or not to proceed with their applications (see for example Cornwall General Hospital (1990), 2 P.E.R. 22).
2ONA is the applicant in most of the matters, but hospitals are the applicants in three. Where hospitals are the applicants, there are also cross applications filed by ONA, that is, both the hospital and the ONA application relate to the same or similar issues arising out of their pay equity bargaining.
3The Tribunal released itsreasonsfordecisioninthe Women's College Hospital cases on August 4, 1992 (Women's College Hospital (No.4) (1992), 3 P.E.R. 61]. ONA requested a one week extension of the requirement to advise the Tribunal of its intentions with respect to the adjourned applications. The Applicant Hospitals did not request an extension. The Tribunal granted the one week adjournment (Respondent Hospitals, 2 September 1992 P.E.H.T.)
4On September 8, 1992, ONA requested that its applications be listed for hearing. On the same day, the representative for the Belleville GeneralHospital and the York Finch General Hospital requested that their applications proceed to hearing or be adjourned with their corresponding ONA applications.
5On September 24, 1992, ONA requested that the Tribunal schedule pre-hearings on a regional basis, such that the applications with respect to all the hospitals ina givenregionwould be dealt with at the same time.
6On September 28, 1992 the representative for all the hospitals except the Royal Ottawa Hospital requested that the ONA applications and the hospitals' applications be adjourned sine die. He indicated that the hospitals were continuing to seek a "single solution to the issues of a gender neutral comparison system for the purposes of meeting the requirements of the Pay Equity Act and it is still anticipated that the results of the Women's College Hospital cases willassistthe partiesinresolvingthe issuesindispute." It should be noted that the reasons for decision in the Women's College Hospital cases ordered those parties to resume bargaining and table their proposals for a gender neutral comparison system within 90 days of the decision.
7On September 29, 1992, the Ottawa General Hospital requested that its application be adjourned sine die for reasons similar to those indicated above.
8Counsel for ONA responded that it did not agree to the adjournment request. ONA also noted that the requestbythe hospitals to adjourntheir applications wasuntimelysinceitwas not made within30 days ofthe releaseofthe reasons fordecisioninthe Women's College Hospital cases. We agree with ONA's contention that the applicant hospitals failed to inform the Tribunal of their intentions to proceed or not proceed with their applications within 30 days of the release of the decision in the Women's College Hospital cases. However, ONAhasnotmovedtodismissthoseapplications nor has ONA claimed that it is prejudiced in any way by the hospitals' failure to be timely.
9We do not believe that a respondent can prevent an applicant from bringing its matter on for hearing. Further, we do not find at this time any compellingreasonforthe Tribunal to deny ONA's request that its applications be heard. Therefore, we deny the hospitals' request to adjourn sine die those matters inwhich ONA is the applicant, that is, those matters listed in Appendix A.
10That leaves us with the request of the hospitals to adjourn those matters in which the they are the applicants. Each hospital application will have common issues of fact and law with its corresponding ONA application and normally, the Tribunal lists cross applications together. On October 8, 1992, the representative of the Royal Ottawa Hospital, the Belleville General Hospital and the York Finch General Hospital asked the Tribunal to list their applications for hearing if we listed the corresponding ONA applications for hearing. Therefore, we will list for hearing the hospitals' applications with their corresponding ONA applications.
11ONA has requested that the Tribunal require that pleadings be completed within one week of the dates scheduled for pre-hearings. The hospitals' representative does not believe this would serve any useful purpose and suggests that pleadings be completed at the time the matters are listed for hearing.
12In preparation for listing the ONA applications for hearing, the Tribunal has reviewed the files. We note that some of the applications were made as early as 1989. In manyofthefilesthe pleadings are not complete because the parties agreedtocompletethematalaterdate. Further, we anticipate that with the passage of time, some issues may have altered and the parties may wish to abandon others.
13Given the number of applications thatmustnowbelistedforhearing,theTribunal is concerned that they proceed as efficiently as possible. The goal of the Tribunal at this point is to determine which issues remain, and the facts and events that the partiesproposetorelyonbeforetheTribunal. This will assist the Tribunal in determining how best to schedule pre-hearings and hearings.
14We therefore order the parties to review and complete their pleadings. Any proposed amendments toapplicationsmustbe served on the other parties and filed with the Tribunal byOctober30,1992. Any responses or proposed amendments to responses must be similarly served and filed by November 20, 1992. All replies or proposed amendments to replies must be served and filed by December 4, 1992. For clarity, the parties need only serve the other parties named in their particular application.
15We believe that it is premature to determine if pre-hearings organised by region will be most efficient. We anticipate that after the parties have reviewed and completed their pleadings, we will be able to determine if regional groupings or some other configuration is most suitable.
16This panel is not in a position to determine the appropriateness ofanypleadingsor amendments to pleadings. Any such disputes will be dealt with by the panel hearing the case.
APPENDIX "A"
FILE RESPONDENT HOSPITALS FILE RESPONDENT HOSPITALS
0020-89 Winchester District Memorial Hospital 0050-90 St. Joseph's General Hospital 0021-89 Riverside Hospital of Ottawa 0051-90 Almonte General Hospital 0022-89 Salvation Army Grace Hospital 0052-90 Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital 0023-89 Smith Falls Community Hospital 0053-90 Temiskaming Hospital 0025-89 Children's Hospital of Eastern Canada 0064-90 Belleville General Hospital 0026-89 Brockville General Hospital 0065-90 Ottawa General Hospital 0066-90 St. Joseph's General Hospital 0073-90 Ottawa Civic Hospital 0078-90 Penetanguishene General Hospital 0079-90 Clinton Public Hospital 0080-90 Saugeen Memorial Hospital 0081-90 Bruce Peninsula Health Services 0082-90 Groves Memorial Community Hospital 0085-90 Royal Ottawa Hospital 0086-90 St. Francis Memorial Hospital 0093-90 Mattawa General Hospital 0105-90 Oshawa General Hospital 0112-90 St. Joseph's Hospital (Sarnia) 0113-90 Milton District Hospital 0124-90 Scarborough Centenary Hospital 0125-90 Northwestern General Hospital 0126-90 Memorial Hospital 0132-90 Ajax and Pickering General Hospital 0133-90 Port Hope and District Hospital 0134-90 Kirkland and District Hospital 0139-90 York County Hospital 0142-90 Whitby General Hospital 0143-90 West Nipissing General Hospital 0144-90 Sudbury General Hospital 0145-90 Sydenham District Hospital 0146-90 Brantford General Hospital 0152-90 Listowel Memorial Hospital 0153-90 The Homewood Sanitarium of Guelph, Ont Ltd. 0154-90 Dryden District General Hospital 0155-90 Welland County General Hospital 0156-90 Alexandra Marine and General Hospital 0161-91 Victoria Hospital Corporation 0162-91 Wellesley Hospital 0163-91 Arnprior and District Memorial Hospital 0176-91 Etobicoke General Hospital 0177-91 Anson General Hospital 0178-91 St. Vincent Hospital 0180-91 St. Joseph's General Hospital, Blind River 0181-91 Port Colbourne General Hospital 0182-91 West Lincoln Memorial Hospital 0205-91 Community Memorial Hospital 0206-91 Stratford General Hospital 0207-91 Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care 0208-91 South Huron Hospital Association 0209-91 Clarke Institute of Psychiatry 0210-91 Cobourg District General Hospital 0219-91 Huronia District Hospital 0220-91 St. Joseph's General Hospital, Thunder Bay 0221-91 Montfort Hospital 0230-91 Sarnia General Hospital 0232-91 Leamington District Memorial Hospital 0233-91 St. Joseph's Hospital - Chatham 0234-91 Hotel Dieu of St. Joseph Hospital 0235-91 Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital 0236-91 The Salvation Army Grace Hospital - Windsor 0248-91 Hawkesbury and District General Hospital 0249-91 Meaford General Hospital 0250-91 Campbellford Memorial Hospital 0251-91 York Finch Hospital 0252-91 Perley Hospital 0253-91 St. Joseph Hospital - Guelph 0256-91 Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital 0258-91 Huntsville District Memorial Hospital 0259-91 St. Joseph's Hospital - Hamilton 0260-91 Riverside Health Care Facilities Inc. 0261-91 Norfolk General Hospital 0262-91 Hogarth Westmount Hospital 0263-91 Providence Centre (Providence Villa and Hospital) 0264-91 Lady Minto Hospital 0265-91 St. Catherines General Hospital 0266-91 Laurentian Hospital 0267-91 Woodstock General Hospital 0268-91 Hanover and District Hospital 0269-91 Great War Memorial Hospital 0275-91 County of Bruce General Hospital 0276-91 St. Joseph's Hospital - Brantford 0277-91 Guelph General Hospital 0278-91 Freeport Hospital 0279-91 Douglas Memorial Hospital 0282-91 Mount Sinai Hospital 0283-91 The General Hospital of Port Arthur 0284-91 Grey Bruce Regional Health Care 0285-91 North Bay Civic Hospital 0289-91 St. Joseph's General Hospital 0290-91 Manitouwadge General Hospital 0291-91 Lake of the Woods District Hospital 0292-91 West Haldimand Hospital 0293-91 Sensenbrenner Hospital 0294-91 Hotel Dieu Hospital 0295-91 Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital 0296-91 Ross Memorial Hospital 0297-91 Wilson Memorial General Hospital 0298-91 Kincardine and District General Hospital 0302-91 St. Vincent de Paul Hospital 0304-91 Notre Dame Hospital 0309-91 Sioux Lookout General Hospital 0310-91 Sudbury Memorial Hospital 0343-93 Royal Victoria Hospital