HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-0492.Hill and Campbell.84-10-12IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION
Under
THE CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTNE BARGAINING ACT
Before
THE GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT BOARD
Between: OPSEU (D. Hill & D. Campbell)
For the GrIIor:
For the Employer:
HearirtgZ
and
The Crown in Right of Ontario
(Ministry of Labour)
R. J. Roberts
K. O’Neil
.A. Stapleton
Vice-Chairman
Member
Member
Mr. 7. Moore
Grievance Officer
Ontar’io Public Service Employees Union
Mr. P. Mooney
Staff Relations Officer
Civil Service Commission
January 30, 1984, February 28, 1984
and May 30, 1984
Crievor
Employer
F DECISION 2.
This arbitration arises under. Article 24.2.3 of. the
collective agreement, which. relates to the filling of job
vacancies with surplus employees who are "qualified to perform
the work". In their grievances, the two qrievors claimed
that the Ministry of Labour violated this provision of the
collective agreement when the grievors were refused the
position of Occupational Health and Safety Officer. For
.reasons which follow, the grievance of Mr. Campbell is
dismissed, and the grievance of Mr. Hill is allowed.
Until early 1983, the two grievors were employed by
the Ministry of the Attorney-General as Driver Improvement
Instructors. In this capacity, they lectured to minor traffic
offenders and showed them safety films: Both grievors had
been performing these' duties for a period of about 5 l/2
years.
On February 25, 1983, however, both qrievors were
declared surplus. It seems that the Ministry of the
Attorney-General had reached a decision to consolidate all
Driver Improvement Centres into one Centre located on Sheppard
Avenue. This resulted in the elimination of the qrievors'
jobs. The Ministry of the Attorney-General did provide
the qrievors with some assistance in finding other suitable
positions, particularly within that Ministry, but apparently
c . 4.
and ensure correction of hazards associated with
industrial machinery operation, use of chemicals and industrial processes: prepare accurate reports
of inspections and accidents. You twill: advise management '. and workers in industrial
and '.
institituional operations on all aspects of health
and safety; conduct health and safety audits;
perform duties re accident. prevention and the administration of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. . . .
Qualifications; experience and educational
background in, occupational health. and safety;
progressively responsible experience in industrial and institutional workplaces; extensive knowledge
of the operation of industrial machinery: . understanding of the problems associated with the cause and prevention of industrial accidents
and health hazards; knowledge of then Occupational'
Health and Safety' Act; excellent interpersonal
and communication skills; conflict resolution
skills acquired through experience as a union
steward or supervisor, handling work refusals
or grievances or participating in labors
negotiations; valid driver's licence.
The grievors wondered why this ad should appear if the
positions indeed, were being frozen pending consideration
of the applications of surplus employees.
Shortly thereafter, the grievors were requested to
submit to Ms. Finnie their applications and resumes, along
with a covering letter setting forth the reasons why they
believed they could do the job of Occupational Health and
Safety Officer 2. Both qrievors used the April 29 ad, above,
as a basis for their covering letters. This was the only
information that they had regarding the requirements of
the job at that particular time.
It was not until shortly
before May 11 that the qrievors were supplied by the Ministry
of the Attorney General with the Position Specification
for the job in question. I
5.
Both grievors testified that they thought that, they
had done well in their interviews. Nevertheless, one month
later they were informed by the Ministry of the Attorney
General that they had not been successful. Both were shocked.
Mr. Hill requested and received an interview with
representatives from the Ministry of Labour. This took
place on June 22, 1983. He was not satisfied with the reasons
that were given for his rejection. He discussed the matter
.with the others. Thereafter, on June 17, 1993, Mr. Campbell
grieved. On June 27, Mr. Hill filed his grievance. The
present proceeding followed in due course.
At the hearing, considerable testimony was elicited
regarding the .backqround to the job of'Occupationa1 Safety
and Health Inspector 2 and the way in which the interviews
were arranged and conducted. It seems that this was the
first occasion upon which the Ministry attempted to fill
vacancies in this classification according to a.new Position
Specification. Prior to the issuance of this new Position ,
Specification, there had been two separate types of
Occupational Health and Safety Officers: one for industrial
workplaces, and one for institutional workplaces such as
hospitals and educational institutions.' The latter type
of officer was known as an Extended Coverage Officer. This
title derived from the fact that in 1979, the Occupational
6.
Health and Safety Act was extended for the first time to
institutional workplaces.
For some time after this extension of the coverage
of. the Act, the Ministry essentially ran two parallel
inspection systems. In one system, Occupational Health
and Safety Officers with 'industrial expertise took care
of industrial workplaces; in the other, .Occupational Health
and Safety Officers with 'institutional expertise took care
of the inspection of institutions. This proved to be too
expensive, so in 1981, the Ministry eliminated the
distinction. All Occupational Health and Safety Officers
became "composite" officers with responsibility to inspect
both industrial and institutional workplaces.
When the Ministry 'decided to fill the jobs for which
the grievors applied, it was the first time that there had
been a recruitment for a "composite". Occupational Health
and Safety Officer 2. .In order to reflect this change,
the Ministry, as previously noted, issued an amalgamated
Position Specification. In composing the ad for the job, the
Ministry amalgamated the criteria from previous ads for
the two separate positions and also made, reference to the
Position Specification.
The same procedure essentially was fo~llowed with respect
to setting the questions to be asked during the interviews,
--
I.
as well as in establishing a weighting system for these
questions. Mr. Thomson, the Regional Manager of the Toronto
West Region of the Occupational Health and Safety Branch,
testified that he and Ms. Rinnie established this weighting
system from referring to that used by previous Boards. They
also referred to revised hiring criteria for the coniposite
position that had been established in 1981 by Mr. J. Greenlaw.
He said, "Just prior, to this Board we took Mr. Greenlaw's
criteria, [and] made minor adjustments. .,;. We did not do
a complete re-think because Mr.
Greenlaw had amalgamated'
the criteria at that time: . . . We made some changes in
the evaluation. I. agreed with the allocation of points
that were set by Mr. Greenlaw."
There was one more first for this particular Board:'
The cut-off j?oint for'the candidates was raised from 60%
to 67%. According to Mr. Thomson's testimony, this was
something that had been decided at about the same time as
the amalgamation of the two job descriptions. He said,
"The cut-off earlier had been 6b% prior to 1981. It went
to 67% in 1981. . . . We found that when it was at 60% we
had difficulty with employees. They were not coming up
to the standard required for .the job. It was determined
that because of the high profile of Occupational Health
and Safety Officers, we should only have well-qualified
people. So we decided on a minimum of two-thirds. We were
\
U.
wafter the top one-third, yes." The grievors and their surplus
colleagues, apparently, were the first candidates to whom
then higher standard was applied.
A ~mino,r change that occurred just .before the first
candidate was interviewed involved a re-allocation oft points
between the criteria of "quality of application" and "conflict
resolution skills". Three points were taken from the former,
reducing its value from 5 points' to 2 points, and added
'to the latter, increasing its value from 8 to 11 points.
There were four persons on the selection board: Mr.
Thomson; Ms. Finnie; Mr. P. O'Reilly, Manager of the
Scarborough Office of the Industrial Health.and Safety Branch;
and, Mr. J. Creery, the Regional Manager, Industrial Health
and Safety, London. Of these, only Mr. Thomson was,called
to testify on behalf of the Ministry.
According to Mr. Thomson little preliminary inquiry
was made regarding the qualifications of the grievors. The
members of the board solely relied upon 'the interview and
the job application of each candidate. The board did not
make any reference to the personnel file of either grievor.
There was no attempt to contact previous supervisors of 1
either grievor. No references were contacted.
Mr. Thomson described the procedure for each interview
as follows: "The interviewers marked down notes that theytook
9.
independently. All interviewers were involved in asking
some of the questions, and in
asking supplementary questions
to get further information. At the end of .the interviews
the board reviewed each questi on to ensure that each member
of the board had all of the information, and in some cases
we would discuss some points because of some
misunderstandings. There [was] a discussion of why there
[wash] a disagreement in scores on a particular point and
it [was] from that discussion that . . . a board member may
or may not [have raised] or [lowered] his marks based upon
further information ~that was received. Then the composite
score [was] totaled up and averaged as a board score."
.
With respects to Mr. .Campbell, the .scores recor.ded by
each member of the board fell well below the cut-off point
of 67%. Mr. Thomson testified that Mr. Campbell received
.such scores. for a number of reasons. He said, "His work
.experience wa.s solely in the Canadian, Armed Forces, Vehicle
Operating Transporation Section. He did not relate to any
heavy industry nor to any light manufacturing work area. \
He did not indicate any experience of working in schools
or having any, health care dr other institutional type
background."
Mr. Thomson further stated, 'I In looking into the
Occupational Health and ~Safety Act aspects, for the last
c
10. .
five years Mr. Campbell had no involvement with the Act.
He worked for the Attorney-General. . . . His background
in the safety field was in that of vehicle operation safety
rather than occupational health and safety of workers. . . .
As to hasard recognition ,and control, . . . he had some
knowledge of what ,thresbold limit values meant . . . [but]
he did not discuss designated substances or other chemical
and biological substances. Nor did he talk about the control
method used to control these hazards in the workplace, e.g.,
'ventilation controls -- local and general exhaust systems,
eye protection, protective clothing, etc."
Mr. Thomson then went on to describe further shortcomings
in Mr. Campbell's background regarding physical agents such
as light, heat, vibration, stress or noise. Mr. Campbell,
apparently, only addressed noise from aircraft and methods
of protecting against it. He did not discuss control methods
such as protective equipment and clothing when~ working in
hot or cold areas, or methods of eliminating or reducing
vibration such as rubber padding, etc.
There were similar deficiencies in Mr. Campbell's. I
background, apparently, in the safety aspects of operation
of machinery and methods of guarding against injury on such
machinery. He had little, if any, formal. training in
occupational health and safety. His .knowledge of the
.
.
Occupational Health and Safety Act was limited to what he
had read in it and in the regulations under the Act. Summing
up, Mr. Thomson stated, "These are the main areas that we
felt were deficient 'when reviewing Mr. Campbell's resume
and results that came through during the interview.,, .
Mr. Hill, on the other hand, fared much better than
Mr. Campbell. For all intents and purposes, two of the
four scores he received placed him~ator above the two-thirds
'cut-off point established by the Board.* Nevertheless, the
significantly:lower scores recorded by Ms. Finnie and Mr.
Thomson -- 58 and 56, respectively -- brought the 'Bpard'
Average for Mr. Hill below-the cut-off point.
.
Mr. Thomson gave several reasons for scoring Mr. Hill
in the way in which he did. He said, "Mr. Hill had some
experience in an industrial setting but this was over 20
years old when he was working for Vickers, where he took
his technical training.' Most of his military career was
*Mr. O'Reilly gave Mr. Hill a score of 68%. Mr. Creery
must be taken to have given Mr. Hill a score of 66%. There
was some confusion with respect to Mr. Creery's score,
apparently because of a failure on his part to re-allocate to the criterion of ~"conflict resoluticn skills" the three points taken from the criterion of "quality of application".
In the absence of any testimony from Mr. Creery as to
precisely what occurred, these three points must be considered
as having been awarded to Mr. Hill, thereby raising to
66 out of 100 the original score of 63 out of 97 which was recorded by Mr. Creery.
,
*L.
as an officer in the Mobile Equipment Branch. . . . He was
a Steward in OPSEU. He did have some supervisory background.
But he had not worked in any institutional . . . setting . . .
The majority of his safety involvement was in
transportation and operator safety. He had very limited
,knowledge except for 20 yearsago in the field of Occupational
Health and Safety. Although he did have workers working
for him. He was not directly involved in a large number
of investigations but was required to review aircraft and
.vehicle accidents, incident investigations.,,
Mr. Thomson ,went on, " In the area of hazard
identification and control, . . . we were looking for toxicity,
flamability, as discussed.earlier. Mr. Hill was aware ,that
some~ of these substances had been designated in 'Ontario.
He mentioned some of these. He also discussed the hazard
to workers in particular in a .garage, the carbon monoxide
danger. He talked briefly about some of the hazards related
to designated substances. He did not identify other chemical,
biological substances that he had knowledge of. He did
not expands on some of the control methods which can be used
to reduce or eliminate hazards in the workplace, e.g.,
engineering controls, ventilation and personal protertion
equipment.,,
The next weak area, according to Mr. Thomson, was in
operation of machinery. Mr. Thomson stated, "We were looking
for personal knowledge end work experiences ,in industrial
,
13.
or institutional workplaces. He did list several pieces
of machine shop type equipment with which he was familiar,
e.g., press, lathe, drill presses. But he did not talk
about extractors used in laundries., punch presses; brake
presses, chemical mixing machines. Other than a cover-type
guard for pinch points~or gears he did not discuss the methods
used for guarding machinery in the modern workplace."
As to safety courses in occupational health and safety,
Mr. Thomson acknowledged that Mr. Hill had attended courses
dealing with occupational health and safety, but not under
the'ontario legislation. As to knowledge of the Occupational
Health and Safety Act and its regulations, Mr. Thomson stated,
"Mr. Hill had read the Act and had a* good perception of
the intent of the legislation. He gathered that it was
an internal responsibility system, with responsibilities
of employers and workers,. etc. This could have been from
another source. he did not have a good knowledge of an
inspector's role per se. - Just .what he gathered from reading
or. conversation." As to past work experience. Mr. Thomson
stated, "Mr. Hill had spent the past 5 years with the Attorney
General's Department and the 20 years before that with the
Military. The Military does have safety rules and regulations
that are similar but arenot applied as they are by the Ontario
Grovernment. These were Mr. Hill's shortcomings."
14.
At the hearing, several issues were raised. The first
of these involved a submission from the Union that the entire
selection process was invalid. The gist of this submission
was that to protect the rights of surplus employees under
Article. 24 of the collective agreement, the Ministry should
have suspended the competition for the positions:. otherwise,
knowledge, on the part of the interviewers of the existence
of ,more highly qualified applicants would prejudice the
evaluation of whether one or more surplus employees was
‘"qualified to perform the work.,,
Thisis;not a new issue. It was raised and extensively
argued in previous arbitrations before the Grievance
Settlement Board. See Re OPSEU (Policy Grievance) and
Ministry of Transportation and Communications (19831, G-S-B.
#206/83 (Samuels): Van Steen and Ministry of Industry and
Tourism (1981); G.S.B. #333/81 (Draper). In the latter
case, the Board said:
It is, however, submitted that the interview was
"coloured" by its juxtaposition to an open
competition for the new position. We do not believe
that the fact that the Employer proceeded with
the competition was prejudicial to the Grievor. The circumstance of a competition being in progress did n@t interfere with her rights as a surplus
employee. . . . In our opinion, the Grievor was
not made to compete with the applicants in the competition by reason of ~being put ~to the same
test. There is no evidence that her performance
was measured against that of any applicant. i..
Id. at 12-13. - -
15.
It was not considered to be appropriate to address the legal
.aspects of the issue because the procedure adopted by the
Employer did not prejudice. the rights of the grievor as
surplus employee.
The same may be said of .the case before us. Mr. Thomson
testified that neither at the interview stage nor when the
grievors were notified of their rejection did the members
of the Selection Board have any exposure to .non-surplus
applicants. There was no access to any applications from
such employees. No interviews relating to the competitions
were conducted- at 'any time before the grievors received
notification of rejection. The, evidence did not sustain
any inference that the grievors might have been prejudiced
by being made to compete with non-surplus applicants.
Turning, however, ..to the procedure followed by the
Selection Board, there appear to be certain deficiencies
in the way in which the qualifications of the grievors were
evaluated. The grievors were surplus employees and were .
entitled to be evaluated as such. In making such an
evaluation, it would seem appropriate to expect the
interviewers to have made every reasonable effort to ensure
that they had before them all relevant information bearing
upon the qualifications of the grievors to perform the work.
Because the evaluat ion was conducted w ,ithin the context
-_
16.
of the job security provisions of Article 24 of the collective
agreement, it does not seem unreasonable to expect
interviewers to have exercised a higher degree of care in
this regard than in the case of a competition under Article
4. An application under Article 24 of ~the collective
agreement involves a very serious determination. It is
not a case of promoting a government employee who already
has a job. It is a case of finding a' job for a government
employee who, through no fault of his or her own, no longer
has one.
In the present case, the efforts of the interviewers
to inform themselves regarding the qualifications of the
grievors fell below even the standard of care to be expected
with respect to job competitions. As was stated in Re Cross
and Ministry of Transportation and Communications (19821,
G.S.B. #339/81 (Jolliffe):
More difficult to understand is the reluctance or unwillingness of Ministry officials to inform themselves more fully about candidates interviewed.
This is not a question of previewing hundreds of
files from a,11 over, as Mr. Pettifor suggested. In this particular case it would have been extremely simple to look at the griever's annual evaluations, and equally simple to ask the Ministry of Natural Resources in the same area for information about MnLamb and his performance. . . . Even if the
true destination was safely reached, the driving procedures used to get there were neither correct
nor efficient. If selection boards object to
being well-informed about candidates and persist
in relying almost .entirely on interviews, they are over-estimating their own powers of judgment
.
17.
on sight, they are using a primitive approach
to personnel selection and invite more contests
before this Board. . . . Id. at 15.
The Board strongly suggested that even in a job competition,
the members of a selection board should undertake to inform
themselves fully about the candidates.
With respect to the grievors, the members of the
Selection Board made little in the way of preliminary enquiry
regarding the qualifications of the grievors. They solely
relied upon the .interview and the job application of each
candidate. There wasp no reference to personnel files; no
attempt to contact previous supervisors; and, no attempt
to contact references. While Mr. Thosison did not offer
any justification in his testimon$ for these omissions,
it was suggested by counsel for, the Ministry that these
omissions were not serious in the case of the grievors because
it seemed highly unlikely that any relevant information
would have evolved from these cont,acts. In this regard,
he emphasized that in the 5 l/2 years immediately preceding
their applications, the grievors had ,been employed in an
unrelated field and as such their personnel files and
supervisors could not have yielded much information that
might have been helpful to the grievors in the main areas
in which they were found to be deficient, i.e., progressively
responsible work experience and hazard recognition and
18.
control.
This seems to be an impossible submission t0 assess,
for two reasons: first, no one made these efforts.and hence
it will never be known what information actually might have
surfaced: and, secondly, the submission was based upon
hindsight, in the sense that prior to the interviews --
which constituted the primary.source of information regarding
the grievors -- the members of the panel did 'not actual~ly
'know what areas of weakness the grievors might possess.
It does seem possible that relevant information might
have been provided ~if the missing inquiries had been made.
At the very least, the members of the Selection Board might
have been led to ask questions of the grievors which could
have elicited more information on ,perceived areas of
deficiency. In this respect, it is noted that at the hearing,
the grievors provided the Board with considerably more
evidence regardingtheir qualifications. than apparently came
to light in the course.of their interviews.
In view of the above shortcomings in the interview
procedure, it does not seem inappropriate for this Board
to accord weight to the additional evidence supplied by
the grievors in our determination, of whether they were
"qualified to perform the work" within the meaning of Article
24.2.3. With respect to this issue, the evidence showed
that the Ministry approached the question of who might be
"qualified" in a special sense. Ordinarily, "to determine
if the surplus employee is qualified to perform the work
pursuant to Article 24.2.3, . . . [there must be] 'present
ability!, to the extent of minimum competence in all components
% of the job requirements." Re Loebel and Ministry of Municipal
Affairs and Housing (19831, G.S.B. #331/82 (Verity), at
21. Here, the Ministry was not looking for "present~ability";
rather, it was looking for an employee who would possess "present
‘ability". upon completion of a mandatory ten-week training course *
which was required to be completed by all persons hired on as
Occupational Safety and Health Officers. It was acknowledged
that if either of the grievors had been successful, they would
have been put, through this.course. .
Based upon the totality of the evidence that was
presented at the hearing regarding the qualifications of
the grievors, it must be concluded that at the end of the
ten-week training course, Mr. Hill would have had the present
ability to perform ;the work of ,an Occupational Health and
Safety Officer 2, to the extent of minimum competence in
all components of the job requirements. The evidence showed,
inter *, that although Mr. Hill's industrial experience
was over 20 years old, it could not be discounted. in the
way in which it was by Mr. Thomson. The evidence showed
that Mri Hill was a qualified Mechanical Engineer. Despite
20.
the passage of time, he retained a considerable store of
theoretical and practical knowledge. He possessed. a
postgraduate diploma in aircraft production and was a member
~of the Institute of Production Engineers in the United Kingdom.
Moreover, in his military career, which immediately
preceded his employment as a Driver Improvement Instructor,
Mr. Hill. had considerable exposure to matters relating to
.industrial health and safety. The majority of this experience
did not seem to be limited, as Mr. Thomson thought, to
transportation and operator safety. For example, as a Base
Transportation Officer, Mr., Hill served as the Chairman
of the Section Genera,1 Safety Committee. In this capacity,
he was responsible, inter alia, for health and safety. He
performed weekly inspections in this regard. Be investigated
safety problems such, as exhaust fumes, noise, vibration,
improper venting and improper use of 'protective equipment.
Mr. Hill also possessed more experience in the area
of hazard recognition and control than that for which he
was credited by Mr. Thomson. Evidence in this area, which
apparently was not fully. before Mr. Thomson ~when he made
his assessment, indicated that Mr. Hill possessed extensive
knowledge regarding the storage and handling of explosives,
bulk fuels, amunition, etc. He also possessed extensive
knowledge of the compatibility or incompatibility with each
21.
other of such substances.
Finally, it seemed from the evidence that Mr. Hill
possessed more in the way of conflict resolution skills
than that for which' he might have been credited in the
interview. The evidence showed that often in the course
of his military career Mr. Hill functioned as a manager
of a considerable complement of military and civilian
employees. When he became a Driver Improvement Instructor,
'Mr. Hill gained experience on the other side of
labour-management relations. He served as Vice-President
of Local 551 of OPSEU. With this background to draw from,
it seems that Mr. Hill would have been in a good position
to take account of the. sensitivities. of both sides in 1
attempting to resolve a conflict between them regarding
health and safety matters.
On all of. the above,it is our conclusion that Mr. Hill
was "qualified to perform the work" within the meaning of
Article 24.2.3. of the collective agreement, and as a result
he should have been assigned to fill the vacancy in the
classification of Occupational Health and Safety Officer
2.
Turning to the qualifications of Mr. Campbell, it should
be noted that the totality of the evidence at the hearing
22.
indicated that he, too,~ had fewer weaknesses than indicated
in the scores he received. Unfortunately, however,
his
qualifications still seem to fall short of the mark. In
particular, the majority of his ,industrial experience was
limited to the area of. vehicle operation. Apart from one
brief experience many years ago, Mr. Campbell did not have
any exposure to heavy industry, light manufacturing, or
institutional settings.
. The grievance.of Mr. Campbell is dismissed. The grievance
of Mr. Hill is allowed. Mr. Hill is, awarded the job of
Occupational Health and Safety Officer 2, effective as of
the date of his grievance, with no loss of seniority, wages
or benefits. We will retain jurisdiction of the matter pending
implementation by the parties of the'terms of this Award.
DATED AT London, Ontario this 12th da
I' I dissent!' (see attached)
K. O'Ns:l, Member
4th /bfz&z& _
A. Stapleton, Member
DISSENT OF THE UNION NOMINEE
I concur with the award on the subject of Mr. Hill but
cannot concur on the subject of Mr. Campbell.
I do agree that Mr. Campbell certainly 'had fewer
weaknesses then indicated in the point scores received. However
despite the fact that the majority of his industrial experience was .'
limited to the area of vehicle operation, I do not agree that he
did not have sufficient experience to qualify for the job in
question, particularly given the period of training that was
required by the Ministry of all its new hires in this position.
I feel that that the evidence showed that Mr. Campbell
had sufficient qualification to do the job, even if it was not as
extensive as Mr. Hill's,. His heavy equipment experience, although
some time ago, was reinforced ,by his subsequent experience with
various kinds of vehicular equipment. He also had carpentry and
metal work courses in the area of light industry. Hc was directly
responsible for safety when he was #in the' military. He testified
that he was made the safety supervisor on the RCAF base in Langor,
England after a course. They used the system of car control that
had been formulated by the London Police. He was responsible for
forklift training and safety lectures at the base. He had courses
in firefighting and nuclear defence and safety. At RCAF in Trenton
he was the safety supervisor, he gave instruction to mechanics, and
he was in charge of safe handling of fuel at the refueling station.
2.
At CFB Lahr he, as the chief dispatcher, made physical examinations
of the tank farm and refueling tender. Throughout this time he
continued to give safety courses in vehicular safety.
When he came to Toronto he was responsible .for
approximately 45 military and 50 civilians doing approximately the
same job as in Lahr. When he was in Hamilton he was the NC0 in
.charge of transportation and later was promoted to warrant officer
and as such was responsible for the mechanics' health and welfare
and their surroundings. He attended base conferences on safety.
He reviewed all vehicle accident reports and he was chairman of the
base safety committee for local support equipment.
Although he may not have had much formal dispute
resolution. experience, the reason for this was that he would
resolve ~the problems with the workers at the first level. He was
also involved in correcting people who had unsafe practices and
urging them to have better habits.
He had direct responsibility to investigate accidents,
come up with findings and substantiate them.
As Mr. Thompson testified, no one that he hires has all
the skill. required for the job. It is hard to understand .how Mr.
Campbell's military experience and subsequent "people" experience
with the Ministry of Transport does not qualify him for the
inspector job. He hasmuch more experience with equipment of all
3.
kinds than could be expected coming from the "institutions" that
the interviewing committee was evidently looking for, for example:
schools and hospitals. It is also very difficult to understand why
the military is not considered an institution worthy of
consideration under this heading when a police force is. It would
seem to me
that the military is a much more comprehensive
institution and one that has offered Mr. Campbell a much more
varied and appropriate experience than many of these institutions
would.
Mr. Thompson.also testified that one of the key things
necessary for the job was "adaptability of the human being to new
situations". If is. very clear from all of Mr. Campbell's
experience that he has that adaptability. Particularly, his
successful adaptation to his job at the Ministry.of Transportation
and Communications after his .long career in the military
demonstrates this most recently. His progessive experience in the
military, which required constant adaptability to different
situations and countries, demonstrates this over many years. as
well.
I am satisfied on the evidence that Mr. Campbell meets
the standard necessary for the job in question. Given the purpose
of the clause in the Collective Agreement which we are operating
under, both grievances should be allowed in my opinion '.
4.
As to the procedural matter, the facts of this case are
sufficiently similar to the Marek case (GSB 414/83) that the
process shoud have been quashed. As the Samuels Board says on page
5 of that award, reliance on the interviews alone and failure to
refer to personnel files for performance appraisals would "alone
fatally flaw the selection process undertaken by the interviewers
here."
The question of the difference between the job
specification and the posting is a rather important one. The job
posting clearly offers a job for which both grievors are.qualified.
The "problems" in the application arose out of the specifics of the
job specification and the interview team's interpretation of them.
It is at the very least bad labour relations to have higher
standards in mind then ,that which are posted. However, here the
Collective Agreement specifically requires that the notice of the
vacancy specify nature and title of position, the salary and
qualifications required. Therefore ,the employer is bound by the
notice of vacancy as to what can be 'required of the applicants.
Given all these considerations, I would have allowed the
grievance of Mr. Campbell as well.