PSGB#P-2014-4875

IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION

Under

THE PUBLIC SERVICE ACT OF ONTARIO

Before

THE PUBLIC SERVICE GRIEVANCE BOARD

BETWEEN

Ron Ihasz

Complainant

• and -

The Crown in Right of Ontario (Ministry of Finance)

Employer

BEFORE

Marilyn A. Nairn

Vice-Chair

FOR THE COMPLAINANT

Ron Ihasz

FOR THE EMPLOYER

Ferina Murji Treasury Board Secretariat Legal Services Branch Counsel

SUBMISSIONS

October 30, November 13, 2015

Decision

1The Board has issued interim decisions dated April 17, September 17, and October 30, 2015 addressing the complainant’s request for accommodation of the hearing and the need for appropriate and sufficient medical information in order for the Board to be able to assess that request. Notwithstanding that the complainant was advised in the April 2015 decision that the hearing scheduled for September 18, 2015 might proceed in his absence should he not attend on that date and not provide appropriate and sufficient medical documentation to support any reason for his absence, the scheduled hearing date of September 18, 2015 was adjourned in order to allow the complainant a further opportunity to address this issue by providing the Board with appropriate and sufficient medical documentation by November 20, 2015 to support his request for an accommodation of the hearing.

2The nature of both an accommodation request and the hearing process were set out in the April and September decisions for the benefit of both the complainant and any treating medical practitioner. By e-mail dated October 22, 2015 the complainant sought to “vary/change” the Board’s decision of September 17, 2015. The employer took the position that the complaint ought to be dismissed.

3The October 30, 2015 decision deferred any consideration of the employer’s request that the complaint be dismissed. The decision declined to vary the September 17, 2015 decision and reiterated that the complainant remained subject to the directions set out in the September 17, 2015 decision, that is, to provide appropriate and sufficient medical documentation to support any request for the accommodation of the hearing process and to provide particulars of his complaint. The complainant was advised that he continued to have until November 20, 2015 to comply.

4Apparently in immediate response to the receipt of the October 30, 2015 decision, the complainant sent an e-mail to the Board on October 30, 2015 stating as follows:

My responses are final, we are not agreeing to push this to November 20^th so nthat [sic] the P.S.G.B. can comply with the MINISTRTY [sic].

MAKE A DECISION NOW OR KILL THE COMPALINT [sic] NEXT WEEK & THEN I WILL FILE A H.R.T.O. COMPLAINT!!!!!

5The Board did not respond to that e-mail. By a further e-mail sent to the Board on November 13, 2015 the complainant stated:

PSGB#P-2014-4875 vs. M.G.C.S. is withdrawn. I never filed a grievance against the Ministry of Finance.

6The deadline of November 20, 2015 has now passed. The complainant has not provided the Board with any further medical documentation. To the extent that the complainant has asserted that the employer took certain actions, for example, in surplussing his employment in 2012, in placing him on “discretionary leave without pay” rather than “sick leave without pay”, or requiring him to provide more fulsome medical evidence in support of his leave of absence from work, there is no basis for understanding why these actions (even assuming the truth of the conduct) were allegedly improper.

7In any event, the complainant has advised that he is withdrawing his complaint. In that circumstance, the Board concludes that these proceedings are hereby terminated, the complaint having been withdrawn.