HomeMy WebLinkAboutP-2006-2457.Robert Younger.07-07-18 Decision
Public Service
Grievance Board
Suite 600
180 Dundas Sl. West
Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z8
Tel. (416) 326-1388
Fax (416) 326-1396
BETWEEN
BEFORE
FOR THE GRIEVOR
FOR THE EMPLOYER
HEARING
Commission des
griefs de la fonction
publique
Bureau 600
180, rue Dundas Ouest
Toronto (Ontario) M5G 1Z8
Tel. : (416) 326-1388
Telec. : (416) 326-1396
IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION
Under
THE PUBLIC SERVICE ACT
Before
THE PUBLIC SERVICE GRIEVANCE BOARD
Robert Younger
- and -
The Crown in Right of Ontario
(Ministry of the Environment)
Kathleen G. O'Neil
Robert Boswell
Craig Boswell McDermot
Barristers and Solicitors
Sean Kearney
Senior Counsel
Ministry of Government Services
June 11,2007.
Nj
~
Ontario
P-2006-2458
Grievor
Employer
Vice-Chair
2
Decision
This decision deals with the employer's preliminary obj ection to Mr. Robert Younger's
grievance, which claims compensation, including loss of pension income, as a result of alleged
irregular management action after the parties signed Minutes of Settlement dated August 21,
2006, and before the grievor's retirement on December 12,2006. The employer maintains that
the adjudication of this grievance should not proceed on the merits on anyone of three separate
grounds:
- it is foreclosed by the Minutes of Settlement;
- it deals with pay for performance; and
- Mr. Younger, a former employee who voluntarily retired, has no grievance rights.
Further, it is alleged that the grievance amounts to an abuse of process, to which the
Board should respond by ordering costs against the grievor.
By contrast, the grievor takes the position that the Minutes of Settlement do not cover the issue
he is raising, and that it was an implied term of the Minutes of Settlement that his normal terms
and conditions of employment, including an annual evaluation and pay for performance, would
apply up until his date of retirement. Further, the Board's longstanding practice of not ordering
costs should be followed, in the grievor's submission.
The facts
The facts necessary to this decision are not in dispute, and can be summarized as follows. The
grievor, 65 at the time of the hearing of this matter, retired from his job as Labour Relations
Officer with the Ministry of Environment with over thirty years of service on December 12,
2006. This retirement date was fixed in Minutes of Settlement entered into on August 21,2006,
when discussions took place prior to the hearing of an OPSEU grievance which included
allegations that Mr. Younger had made inappropriate remarks at work, which he denied, then and
now. Mr. Younger had the benefit of advice from his own counsel that day, before he entered
into Minutes of Settlement, the terms of which read as follows:
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Whereas the parties have agreed that the Employee shall retire from the Ontario Public
Service Complainant effective December 12, 2006;
And whereas the parties wish to resolve any outstanding issues arising from the
Employee's longstanding employment with the Employer on a without prejudice and
without precedent basis and without any admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part
of any of the parties, and on the understanding that these Minutes shall not be referred to
by either party in future for any purpose except enforcement or interpretation of these
Minutes;
The parties agree to the following terms and conditions as confirmation as to the
Employee's retirement from the Ontario Public Service on December 12, 2006:
1. The parties agree that the terms of these Minutes of Settlement shall be kept confidential
and will not be disclosed to any person, directly or indirectly, except as otherwise required
by law or as required in order to implement the terms of this settlement.
2. The parties agree that for the purposes of this settlement, the Employee shall cease active
employment with the Employer on September 6, 2006. The parties also agree that from the
date of this settlement to September 6, the Employee shall not work on any active OPSEU
files during that period.
3. The parties further agree that for the period from September 6 to September 25,2006, the
Employee will exhaust his accrued MCO days following his aforementioned cessation of
active employment.
4. The parties further agree that for the period from September 26 to November 28,2006, the
Employee will be placed on a leave of absence with pay.
5. The parties further agree that for the period from November 29 to the date of his retirement
on December 12, 2006, the Employee will be placed on a leave of absence without pay.
7. With respect to the accrued vacation days owed to the Employee, the Employer agrees to
make its best efforts to pay the Employee the equivalent of same in early 2007.
8. The parties also agree and acknowledge that this settlement should in no way be
constituted as a waiver of the Employee's entitlement to the severance pay to which he
would be entitled upon retirement on December 12, 2006 (ie. One week per year of service
to a maximum of 26 weeks).
9. The Employer agrees to pay $1500 towards the legal expenses incurred by the Employee,
with such sum to be made payable to Robert Boswell in trust.
10. The Employee agrees that he is fully informed of and understands the consequences of this
settlement and enters into it voluntarily. The Employee further agrees that he has had
proper representation with respect to this settlement, and has been afforded a reasonable
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opportunity and time to make an informed decision with respect to this settlement and his
decision and agreement to retire.
11. In consideration of above, the Employee agrees and acknowledges that this settlement
satisfies all claims and entitlements related to the Employee's employment with the
Employer and the conclusion of such employment on December 12, 2006, and hereby
releases and forever discharges the Crown in right of Ontario and the Employer, its
employees, servants, agents, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, elected officials, directors and
assigns of and from any and all claims or possible claims, actions, causes of action,
prosecutions, demands and proceedings of every nature and kind, statutory or otherwise,
arising out of or as a result of any allegations which the Employee may make against the
Employer either in respect of his employment with the Employer, or flowing from his
retirement from employment with the Employer or any other matter up to and including the
date of this settlement and the date of retirement, including but not limited to all claims
under the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Employment Standards Act, the Public Service
Act and the common law.
12. The parties agree that this settlement contains no admission ofliability or wrongdoing on
the part of any party.
13. This written agreement between the parties represents the complete settlement between the
parties with respect to this dispute and any and all disputes arising from the Employee's
employment and retirement from employment with the Employer. The parties agree and
acknowledge that they have not made any verbal or other agreements beyond what is
contained in this written settlement.
The grievor had expected that, at the latest by the fall of 2006, his performance would be rated
for the final full year of his employment - April 1, 2005 through March 31,2006 - and that he
would receive a performance increase as he had regularly throughout his long service with the
employer. This would have then retroactively increased both his pay from April 1,2006
onwards, as well as the basis for calculating pension income, vacation and termination pay.
Further, he anticipated a lump sum performance award as he was at the top of the salary grid.
When he inquired about this issue on the date of retirement, he was told that the outcome of his
performance review was negative, and that no pay for performance award would be forthcoming.
He felt unjustly treated, in that he was thus deprived of a face-to-face evaluation meeting, as well
as what he felt were the fruits of his more than adequate service in the time period covered.
No one discussed the issue of pay for performance during the negotiation of the Minutes of
Settlement, and Mr. Younger feels badly dealt with that the employer should remain silent about
such a significant issue and then behave so differently than in any of his previous years of
service without any notification or advice to him. He has come to see this as punishment and
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reprisal, an effort to hastily terminate his employment. He now wishes notice and reasons for
his termination, which he has come to view as an illegal dismissal. He feels that he was let go
because of an unjust accusation from a bargaining unit member, and denied the appropriate
protection he should have been afforded as a manager by the employer.
For the purposes of this motion, I have accepted the facts asserted by the grievor to be true and
provable, even though the employer disputes many parts of the allegations made by the grievor.
Indeed, as noted, the facts necessary to this decision were not in dispute. It is their legal
characterization which divides the parties.
In an attempt to not unduly lengthen these reasons, I have referred to only some of the case law
and authorities relied on by counsel in their able arguments. All of it, which I have carefully
considered, is cited in the attached appendix.
Do the Minutes of Settlement preclude this grievance from proceeding?
The Minutes of Settlement are a contract, and answering the question as to whether the Minutes
of Settlement preclude this grievance from proceeding involves interpreting their terms to
ascertain what the parties intended in that respect. The rules of interpretation include that the
parties are assumed to have expressed their intentions in the words that they used, and that they
are to be held to the plain meaning of those words, understood in context, unless to do so would
lead to some absurd or illegal result.
A plain reading of the document, on its face, leaves no doubt that the parties intended that the
Minutes of Settlement were to put an end to any and all further disputes between the parties
arising out of the grievor's employment. This is made very clear both in paragraphs 11 and 13,
set out above. Starting with paragraph 13, the parties have agreed that the above writing is a
"complete settlement... with respect to this dispute and any and all disputes arising from the
Employee's employment. . . and that they have not made any verbal or other agreements beyond
what is contained in this written settlement." This says in plain English that we are not to look
any further than the Minutes of Settlement for the parties' intentions as to any disputes that might
arise about the grievor's employment.
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Paragraph 11 recites that the settlement covers "all claims and entitlements related to the
grievor's employment with the Employer and the conclusion of such employment" and releases
the employer and all its agents from "any and all claims or possible claims... and proceedings of
every nature and kind... arising out of or as a result of any allegations which the Employee may
make against the Employer either in respect of his employment. . . or flowing from his
retirement... including... claims under... the Public Service Act." This is a claim under the
Public Service Act, related to the grievor's employment with the employer. The parties have
expressly turned their minds to whether the grievor should be entitled to bring such a claim.
They have expressed their intention in very clear terms. The answer they gave is that the grievor
has agreed not to bring a claim such as this. Absent duress, which is not alleged, or some other
circumstance that would justify not enforcing this clear contract, it is the Board's duty to enforce
that settlement, rather than to re-open it. As the Board wrote in De Boer and the Crown in Riszht
of Ontario (Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services) (O'Neil) PSGB #P-2005-
1033 at pg. 10:
It is very important as a matter of policy that agreements voluntarily signed be upheld, or
workplace parties would not be able to have confidence in the finality of agreements made
and their ability to govern their affairs accordingly. The question of finality of agreements
is fundamental to the entire legal system, and is especially important in the ongoing
operation of any workplace. Otherwise, parties would be constantly wondering which
agreement they could count on, and which one would be subject to being reconsidered
indefinitely in the future. It would be overly prejudicial to the employer and all concerned
to create a precedent which would amount to a questioning of the finality of the agreement
between the parties that lead to the grievor's voluntary retirement, and the severance of the
employment relationship that followed.
See, to similar effect, Gottwald and the Crown in Riszht of Ontario (Ministry of the Attorney
General) (Leighton) PSGB #P/0127/96.
The Board has considered the facts asserted in Mr. Younger's grievance and the submissions of
his counsel, which are dealt with in turn below, to see whether there is anything in the context of
the signing of the Minutes of Settlement and the release which would suggest some reason why
the plain wording of the parties' agreement should not be given effect. See Pritchard vs.
Ontario (Human Riszhts Commission) (1999) 45 O.R. (3d) 97 (Divisional Court) for a discussion
of the circumstances such as duress, which might lead to such a result. Having done so, and
although it is very clear that the grievor has come to have hard feelings about his dealings with
the employer's representatives relating to the Minutes of Settlement, there is no basis in fact or in
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law for me to interfere with the arrangements made between the parties or to consider the current
complaint as not covered by them.
Mr. Younger's counsel submitted that the release in the Minutes of Settlement was not a license
to conduct future offences that would be shielded by the release. The Board is invited to find
that the unfair, irregular treatment alleged by the grievor in regards to his non-evaluation falls
outside the scope of what the release was intended to cover. At a minimum, counsel notes, the
release talks about further entitlement to severance and vacation pay, the calculation of which is
dependent on the appropriate evaluation of the grievor's performance in accordance with the
employer's own rules. This aspect can be seen as a matter of enforcing the settlement, or
quantifying what is owed under it in counsel's submission. In this respect, it is important to
underline that there is no dispute over the calculation of the amounts paid out, except as they
relate to the negative effect of the alleged failure to conduct an evaluation of the grievor's
performance. In a related point, Mr. Younger asserts in his written submissions to the Board that
Item 8 of the Minutes of Settlement attests to the fact that there would be no adverse impact on
legislated severance pay, and that the Ministry's "after-the fact determination and failure with
respect to work performance detracts from and contravenes this clause." The Board does not
agree that there is any outstanding issue concerning calculation of vacation or severance pay, or
contravention in respect of paragraph 8, which warrants further inquiry by the Board. Paragraph
8 made clear that the settlement was not to constitute a waiver of severance pay, but did not
provide that there would be no adverse impact. It would have necessitated very different wording
than that used in the Minutes of Settlement to find that the employer had warranted that Mr.
Younger's severance, vacation or other payments would be calculated on a basis which included
performance pay in an amount not less than the amount anticipated by Mr. Younger.
As to the case law referred to by employer counsel, Mr. Boswell submitted that most of those
cases referred to the resolution of a grievance which had been prompted by an action of the
employer to which an employee objected, and as a result of which the employee did not return to
work. Counsel argues that Mr. Younger's settlement was not made in similar circumstances, and
did not have the same finality because Mr. Younger went back to work for a period, and then
was on leave, continuing to be employed until December 12, and actively at work until
September 6. Counsel submits that paragraphs 2 through 8 assume continuity of employment
and related events, and that the employer's approach is tantamount to saying that the grievor
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could have been paid $1 a day for the period during which he returned to work, and would have
no recourse. Just as neither party thought it necessary to put in the salary to be paid or any of the
normal terms associated with the grievor's continued employment, counsel submits that the
normal performance evaluation process was part of the agreement to continue the grievor's
employment. Although this argument would have some appeal if in fact the employer had
attempted to withhold part or all of Mr. Younger's then regular salary after the signing of the
Minutes of Settlement, it cannot be accepted as applying to Mr. Younger's current claim. This is
because there is no dispute over any aspect of the grievor's treatment during his period of
continued employment other than the lack of what the grievor considered a proper evaluation and
pay for performance. That subject matter is specifically excluded by Regulation from the
grievances which can be brought to this Board, such that it would not be reasonable to infer that
the Minutes of Settlement were premised on an implied mutual agreement that the grievor could
later complain to this Board about the evaluation of his performance, or the monetary results of
it.
Further, although Mr. Younger was not a grievor and had not been dismissed when he signed the
Minutes of Settlement, and thus was not in exactly the same situation as the grievors in the cases
cited, he did sign a contract similar to those dealt with in many of those cases, agreeing to release
the employer from any claims and proceedings. And there was no suggestion that the contract
was not binding, or that it did not meet the basic requirements for a valid contract. It is clear that
it does meet those requirements, as it contains mutual promises for consideration which included,
among other things, a series of leaves, much of it with pay, and legal expenses.
Counsel acknowledged that the settlement was final, but submitted on the grievor's behalf that it
was not final for things it does not purport to deal with, and that the grievor could not have
known of or released a wrongdoing that had not happened yet. One of the grievor's core
concerns is that he did not get a salary increase for periods of service which were not criticized
until after the agreement. Thus, he feels mislead, in that he was not aware of the employer's
concerns about his performance until after he signed the Minutes of Settlement. There is no
authority that I am aware of, or that was cited to me, for the proposition that a party to a contract
cannot give up the right to bring claims in the future, even based on facts that have not occurred
yet. Nor is there any basis before me to find that the employer had a duty to communicate to Mr.
Younger its concerns about his performance or its intention, if any, about his entitlement, or lack
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thereof, to an increase under the pay for performance plan. The context of the mutual covenants
set out above was that the grievor was leaving the active employ of the government sixteen days
after the signing of the Minutes of Settlement, and would thereafter be on leaves during which no
work was required until his official retirement date a few months later. For all practical
purposes, he was on the eve of the end of his career with the employer when he signed the
Minutes of Settlement, at a time when he was at or near traditional retirement age. In those
circumstances, there is nothing unusual, absurd or illegal about mutual covenants to tie up all the
"loose ends" of the relationship by agreeing that there would be no more claims or issues
between them arising out of the employment relationship.
Moreover, the case law is clear that a settlement will not be set aside because a party later feels
he or she might not have entered into it on the same terms if further information had been
available to them, (see Re Selkirk Collesze v. British Columbia Government and Service
Employees' Union, (1996),59 L.AC. (4th) 14 (Chertkow, B.C.) at pg. 11) or because each and
every possible compensation issue which might have been addressed by the perfectly informed
party was not included in the final package of settlement terms (see Re Canada Post Corp and
CUPW, (1993) 36 L.AC. (4th) 216 (Jolliffe) at pg. 14). As well, the fact that the parties did not
specifically cover every possible entitlement does not diminish the effect of comprehensive
release language. (See Toronto (City) v. Toronto Civic Employees' Union, Local 416, (2002) 106
L.AC. (4th) 59 (Luborsky) at pg. 6.)
Further, counsel for the grievor notes that employer counsel drafted the Minutes of Settlement,
and submitted that therefore the principle of contra proferentem should be applied to give an
interpretation of the Minutes of Settlement favourable to the grievor, or to find that it is the
employer who should have made it explicit in the settlement that the grievor was not entitled to
his usual performance review if that is what they intended. Ministry counsel's response to this
was to assert that although he had drafted them, there was back and forth, and ample opportunity
for the grievor to propose additional terms, such as ones dealing with pay for performance.
Contra proferentem is a Latin term which has been described in the text Labour Arbitration in
Canada, by Brown and Beatty, at topic 4: 1552 as follows: the canon of construction which posits
that where the language of a document is equivocal, it should be interpreted against the party
who prepared it. An example of the application of this doctrine can be found in Re Medis Health
and Pharmaceutical Services Ltd and Teamsters, Chemical and Allied Workers, Local 424
10
(2000), 93 L.AC. (4th) 118 (Armstrong). I find no basis for the application of this doctrine in
this case because I do not find the terms of the Minutes of Settlement to be equivocal or
ambiguous. The wording of paragraphs 11 and 13 provided in the clearest of terms that no
further claims were available to the grievor once he agreed to retire on the terms set out above.
Mr. Younger also writes that the fact that there is no reference in the Minutes of Settlement to
any adverse impact on his pension, "would indicate detrimental reliance on my part in respect of
a lack of employer good faith." The facts before me do not establish a sufficient basis for a case
of bad faith on the part of the employer representatives. There was simply no discussion of the
issue of pay for performance. There is no basis in the material before me to find that the
employer representatives had a duty to have raised pay for performance and its potential impact
on the grievor's pension. Nor is there any other foundation in the circumstances before me on
which the Board could conclude that the settlement should be revisited on the basis of bad faith.
Mr. Younger also indicated in his written materials that the representatives of the Ministry on the
day the Minutes of Settlement were signed were in conflict of interest for not representing his
legal interests at the time, when he should have been able to rely on Ministry counsel's advice.
Although, as a long-service manager, the grievor may well have had a different relationship with
the employer's representatives on other occasions, the fact that the grievor was separately
represented that day by experienced counsel is a complete answer to this assertion. In any event,
the fact that a different bargain could have been struck, or seems preferable in hindsight, is not a
sufficient reason to allow one party to avoid the clear terms of an agreement voluntarily entered
into, even if the grievor had not had the independent legal advice that he did prior to signing the
Minutes of Settlement in issue here.
In his written submissions to the Board, Mr. Younger refers to the Minutes of Settlement and
related procedures as constituting illegal acts contrary to Ontario law and statutory requirements.
However, there is nothing in the content of the Minutes of Settlement or the facts surrounding
them that convinces me that that is the case. If authority is needed for the idea that the grievor
was free to settle all his rights and obligations, including those flowing from statute, on
termination of employment, it can be found in Bucyrus Blades v. McKinley and Pay Equity
Hearings Tribunal, 2005 CanLII1491 (ON S.C.D.C.), a decision of the Ontario Divisional Court
dated January 24, 2005. The grievor has come to the conclusion that the voluntary retirement
11
was a constructive dismissal in disguise, but this does not assist the viability of his grievance in
the face of the clear language of the Minutes of Settlement. The language of the release is more
than adequate to cover any claims arising out of a constructive dismissal from employment.
In sum, the Minutes of Settlement prevent the Board from entertaining this grievance.
Is the wievance precluded by Reszulation 977?
Employer counsel submits that even without the Minutes of Settlement, this matter should not be
permitted to proceed because of the provisions of subsection 31 (4), subparagraphs 4, 5 and 6 of
Regulation 977 under the Public Service Act, which provide as follows:
31. ...
(4) No grievance shall include a complaint in respect of the following
matters:
1. A complaint that a position should be classified.
2. A complaint that a position is in the wrong classification.
3. A complaint relating to a release from employment under
sub secti on 22 (4.1) of the Act.
4. A complaint regarding the method of evaluating an employee's
performance.
5. A complaint regarding the evaluation of an employee's
performance.
6. A complaint regarding the compensation provided or denied to
an employee as a result of an evaluation of his or her
performance. O. Reg. 59/03, s. 1.
Mr. Boswell submitted on Mr. Younger's behalf that the employer had failed to conduct his
performance review in the manner it should have, which constitutes a breach of his working
conditions within the meaning of s. 34(1) of Regulation 977 under The Public Service Act. He
maintained that the matter is not precluded by the above-noted subsection 31(4) because the
Board is not being asked to evaluate any of the prohibited subjects. Rather, the issue is that the
employer failed to follow its own guidelines so that what occurred in the employee's absence
was not a true evaluation. Mr. Boswell argued that previous cases had generally asked for a
review of how the grievor had been rated, and that the decision in Tyrrell v. Ministry of
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Community Safety and Correctional Services, PSGB # 2003-2687, December 7, 2004 (Carter)
turned on the procedural question of reconsideration, rather than a rejection on the merits of the
argument made in that case that no evaluation had been done.
Employer counsel submits that the attempt to circumvent the above subsection argued by
grievor's counsel is the same as the one tried by the grievors in Tyrell, cited above. Counsel
submits that the Board's decision was very clear, that if a claim deals with the area of pay for
performance, the grievor is not entitled to grieve.
There is no doubt that certain aspects of the employer's pay for performance program are
properly considered terms or conditions of a manager's employment. However, by virtue of
subsection 31(4), complaints regarding it are excluded from the grievances over which this
Board has jurisdiction, as they are complaints regarding the method (the how, addressed in
subparagraph 4 above) of evaluation of the employee's performance, the evaluation itself (the
what or the content of the evaluation, addressed in subparagraph 5 above) and the compensation
provided or denied as a result (the fruits of the evaluation, addressed in subparagraph 6 above).
It is very clear from the written submissions of the grievor as well as the oral submissions of
counsel, that the core of the grievor's complaint is about how he was evaluated (not in the way it
had been done before and as he had expected, after a face-to-face meeting), the content of the
evaluation itself (negative, and not giving sufficient recognition to the high quality of his
achievement) and the compensation provided or denied as a result of that evaluation (a zero
percentage merit award). This is exactly the kind of claim excluded by subsection 31(4) and thus
the Board has no authority to deal with it.
Should costs be awarded aszainst the wievor?
As both counsel acknowledge, the Board's general policy is not to award costs against an
unsuccessful litigant except in egregious cases. This has been most recently affirmed in the
Board's June 27,2007 decision in Charlton and the Crown in Right of Ontario (Ministry of
Community Safety and Correctional Services) PSGB #P-2006-0291 (Carter) at page 14. The
only case identified by either counsel where costs have been awarded by this Board was
Callaszhan and the Crown in Riszht of Ontario (Ministry of Awiculture and Food) PSGB
#P/0009/89. In that case, the employer had abolished the grievor's position during the period in
13
which the hearing concerning that position was going on, without any notice to the grievor or the
Board, necessitating a second grievance, with its attendant expense for the grievor, to achieve the
result that the Board had ordered in the first grievance. As a matter of remedy in the second
proceeding, some of the grievor' s costs were awarded against the employer. Employer counsel
submits that the situation here is similar in that Mr. Younger's action in bringing this grievance
has engaged the employer in an additional legal proceeding that it should not have had to defend.
The Board is invited to find that this proceeding is abusive in that the grievor has brought a
grievance that, as a human resources professional, he should have known was without merit and
precluded by both the statute and the Minutes of Settlement. In the same vein, the employer
argues, he made serious unfounded allegations against the Ministry and its officials in the written
materials filed with this grievance, for which cost consequences would be appropriate.
Grievor's counsel submits that there was a legitimate issue of interpretation that the grievor
needed to have resolved, and the fact that there is an argument to be made counters the idea that
this is an abusive or vexatious proceeding. On behalf of the grievor, counsel relies on Daley v.
Ministry of Correctional Services, PSGB # 0027/91, (Willes, Agarwal) and Hall v. Ministry of
Health, PSGB # 0009/99, (Willes), cases in which costs were not awarded.
Although litigating in the face of a settlement as clear as the one the grievor entered into in this
case is something the Board wishes to discourage, the facts before me do not establish that this
grievance was brought in bad faith or in an effort to abuse the process. Further, the
circumstances are not as compelling as those in Callaszhan and are not such as to lead the Board
to award costs against an unsuccessful grievor, something for which no precedent was cited.
***
Although employer counsel also raised the issue of the status of an ex-employee to grieve in a
case not involving dismissal, it is not necessary to address that issue, as the grievance fails on
both the grounds dealt with above, either of which would have been sufficient to prevent the
matter from going forward.
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For the above reasons, the grievance is dismissed, but without costs.
Dated at Toronto this 18th day of July, 2007
15
Cases Cited in Parties' Briefs
On behalf of the grievor:
Kanga v. Ministry of Health, PSGB # 0003/85,20 June 1986 (Simmons, Emrich, Jackson)
Gleason v. Ministry of Transportation, PSGB # 0040/92, 20 February 1998 (Leighton)
McConnell et al. v. Ministry of Transportation, PSGB # 0051/93,20 February 1998 (Leighton)
McLuhan v. Ministry of Transportation, PSGB # 0053/93, 19 March 2002 (Maeots)
Chyczji v. Ministry of Labour, PSGB # 2002-0003,4 July 2006 (O'Neil)
Garratt et al. v. Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, PSGB # 2003-1670, 7 May 2005
(O'Neil)
Bucyrus Blades v. McKinley and Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal, 2005 CanLII 1491 (ON
S.C.D.C.)
Daley v. Ministry of Correctional Services, PSGB # 0027/91, 18 August 1993 (Willes, Agarwal)
Hall v. Ministry of Health, PSGB # 0009/99, 13 January 2000 (Willes)
On behalf of the employer:
Ted de Boer v. Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, PSGB# P-2005-1033,
Mayl0,2006(O'Neil)
K. Gottwald v. Ministry of Attorney General, PSGB# P/0127/96, March 13, 1998 (Leighton)
Lundie/Lavoir v. Ministry of Solicitor General and Correctional Services, PSGB# P/0090/98,
Mayl6, 2000 (Leighton)
Carey v. Ministry of Solicitor General and Correctional Services, PSGB #P/00I0/97,
Februaryl6, 2000 (Leighton)
OPSEU (Young) v. Ministry of the Attorney General, GSB# 2005-2137, January 23,2004
(Abramsky)
OPSEU (Asselstine) v. Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, GSB# 2005-
2137, December 22,2006 (Carrier)
OPSEU (Harrison et al) v. Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services, GSB#
1164/92, October 21, 1999 (Knopf)
16
OPSEU (Schaefer) v. Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, GSB#1839/99,
Decemberl4, 2001 (Abramsky)
OPSEU (Clarke) v. Ministry of Natural Resources, GSB# 0260/98, March 11,2003 (Brown)
Re Ottawa Hospital v. Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 105 L.AC. (4th) 134 (Kaplan)
Re Selkirk College v. British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union, 59 L.AC.
(4th) 14
Re Canada Post Corp v. CUPW, (1993) 36 L.AC. (4th) 216 (Jolliffe)
Toronto (City) v. Toronto Civic Employees' Union, Local 416, (2002) 106 L.AC. (4th) 159
(Luborsky)
Extracts from Sullivan and Driedger on the Constructions of Statutes
R. Dileo v. Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre, PSGB# P/000l/91, December 19, 1991
(Willes)
Tyrrell v. Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, PSGB# 2003-2687,
December 7, 2004(Carter)
Mike Lee v. Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, PSGB# P-2003-2372,
March 21,2006 (Leighton)
Callagahan v. Agriculture and Food, PSGB# p/0009/89, January 10, 1991 and February 4, 1992
(Willes)
T. Jones v. Ministry of Correctional Services, PSGB# pOOI2/89, August 24, 1994 (Willes)
Vipari v. Ministry of Community and Social Services, PSGB# P/0033/94, November 14, 1994
(Lynk)
S. McCorkell v. Ministry of Community and Social Services, PSGB# P/0130/96, July 15, 1997
(Leighton)