CMAW, Local 506 Marine and Shipbuilders v. Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd (“P.Q.” Grievance), 2021 CanLII 138047

The Union grieved the imposition of a 10-day suspension for refusing a drug and alcohol test and the requirement to attend an IME.

The arbitrator held that in the circumstances, including the Employer’s automatic imposition of a 10-day suspension in every case of a positive test or refusal to test, a 6-day suspension was appropriate. On the IME issue, the Arbitrator emphasized that such exams are “extremely invasive” and before initiating one, an employer must inquire into less intrusive methods of obtaining information, and must only seek information that is reasonably necessary, which it had not done here. The Grievor was awarded $5000 in privacy damages.

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Telus and Telecommunications Workers Union United Steelworkers, Local 1944 (unreported)

On the merits portion of this case, we successfully argued that the Employer had created a new job and underpaid the employees doing the work in that job. This decision addresses the remedy.

The employer wanted to deduct certain incentive payments from the calculation of the extra wages that they were owed on the theory that “if we had known we had to pay that much in wages, we never would have paid them all this incentive money, we would have paid them far less in our incentive program".

The arbitrator agreed with us that the Employer’s position was speculative and that they could not deduct these monies.

The result was a difference of over $400,000, with the final tally being $740,000.

This was the largest monetary award that the Union had ever achieved for its members. They describe this victory on their website at this link: https://usw1944.ca/articles/concierge-arbitration-win?fbclid=IwAR2BudEvCvhliPFqKulOE-6iEBEimXwBlWBAPGfar7Q1LCmvQqXCGQEoe4A

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Providence Health Care (St. Paul’s Hospital) v. Health Sciences Association of British Columbia (unreported)

Lindsay A. Waddell and Natasha L. Edgar successfully represented the Union in this grievance. The Employer had denied the grievor’s request for Special Leave, after she travelled to visit her imminently palliative father on a day that she was booked on Union Leave. In denying her request for Special Leave, the Employer failed to comply with the mandatory language of the Special Leave provision in the Collective Agreement. The Arbitrator agreed that the mandatory language of the Special Leave provision would require specific language prohibiting its application, that the Employer had failed to comply with the requirements of the Special Leave provisions of the Collective Agreement and granted the grievance.

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Gibralter Mines Ltd. v. Harvey, 2021 BCSC 927

Lindsay A. Waddell successfully represented the Human Rights Commissioner for British Columbia in the Commissioner’s first application for leave to intervene since her office was created. The Commissioner sought leave to intervene in the proceeding – a petition for judicial review of a BC Human Rights Tribunal decision involving the interpretation of family status discrimination under section 13 of the BC Human Rights Code - on the basis that the interpretation of family status discrimination under the Code clearly engages her statutory mandate. Mr. Justice Gomery found that the Commissioner had a direct and obvious interest in the legal issue, and that her submissions would assist the Court. Lindsay will represent the Commissioner at the hearing of the judicial review later this month.

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