HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-11798.Brar.24-03-04 Decision
Crown Employees
Grievance Settlement
Board
Suite 600
180 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z8
Tel. (416) 326-1388
Commission de
règlement des griefs
des employés de la
Couronne
Bureau 600
180, rue Dundas Ouest
Toronto (Ontario) M5G 1Z8
Tél. : (416) 326-1388
GSB# 2022-11798
UNION# 2022-0234-4964
IN THE MATTER OF AN ARBITRATION
Under
THE CROWN EMPLOYEES COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACT
Before
THE GRIEVANCE SETTLEMENT BOARD
BETWEEN
Ontario Public Service Employees Union
(Brar) Union
- and -
The Crown in Right of Ontario
(Ministry of the Solicitor General) Employer
BEFORE Gail Misra Arbitrator
FOR THE UNION Dan Sidsworth
Ontario Public Service Employees Union
Grievance Officer
FOR THE EMPLOYER Michelle LaButte
Treasury Board Secretariat
Ministry of the Solicitor General
Manager, Labour Strategy & Employee Transition
HEARING December 8, 2023 and February 28, 2024
-2 -
Decision
[1] Since the spring of 2000 the parties have been meeting regularly to address matters
of mutual interest which have arisen as the result of the Ministry of the Solicitor
General as well as the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
restructuring initiatives around the Province. Through the MERC (Ministry Employee
Relations Committee) a subcommittee was established to deal with issues arising
from the transition process. The parties have negotiated a series of MERC
agreements setting out the process for how organizational changes will unfold for
Correctional and Youth Services staff and for non-Correctional and non-Youth
Services staff.
[2] The parties agreed that this Board would remain seized of all issues that arise
through this process and it is this agreement that provides me the jurisdiction to
resolve the outstanding matters.
[3] Over the years as some institutions and/or youth centres decommissioned or
reduced in size others were built or expanded. The parties have made efforts to
identify vacancies and positions and the procedures for the filling of those positions
as they become available.
[4] The parties have also negotiated a number of agreements that provide for the “roll-
over” of fixed term staff to regular (classified) employee status.
[5] Hundreds of grievances have been filed as the result of the many changes that have
taken place at provincial institutions. The transition subcommittee has, with the
assistance of this Board, mediated numerous disputes. Others have come before
this Board for disposition.
[6] It was determined by this Board at the outset that the process for these disputes
would be somewhat more expedient. To that end, grievances are presented by way
of statements of fact and succinct submissions. On occasion, clarification has been
sought from grievors and institutional managers at the request of the Board. This
process has served the parties well. The decisions are without prejudice but attempt
to provide guidance for future disputes.
[7] Kamalveer Brar is a Correctional Officer (“CO”) at the Maplehurst Correctional
Complex (“MHCC”). On December 30, 2022 Mr. Brar filed a grievance claiming a
breach of various articles of the collective agreement. The grievor claims that the
Employer has failed to properly determine his accumulated hours following his return
to work as a CO on October 7, 2020 as it has not recognized his previous service
as a fixed term employee at the Ontario Correctional Institute (“OCI”). He seeks to
be made whole and for the Employer to acknowledge his hours worked while he was
at OCI for the purposes of rollover.
-3 -
[8]This is Mr. Brar’s second grievance about the same issue. In an earlier grievance,
filed on March 17, 2021, the grievor made the same claim, which was addressed in
a decision of this Board dated October 6, 2021.
[9] In Ontario Public Service Employees Union (Brar) v Ontario (Solicitor General), 2021
CanLII 119109 (ON GSB), I fully addressed the facts before me, the relevant
collective agreement provision, previous jurisprudence on similar facts, and
dismissed the grievance. The facts in that decision were that Mr. Brar had resigned
from his employment as a fixed-term CO at the OCI on March 4, 2019, and over 19
months later on October 7, 2020 he took a job as a fixed-term CO again, this time at
MHCC. Mr. Brar felt he should have been credited with his previous service rather
than having to begin anew accumulating hours. For all the reasons outlined in the
2021 decision, I found that Mr. Brar, having resigned from the Ontario Public Service
(“OPS”) in March 2019, could not be credited with his earlier accumulated service
when he rejoined the OPS in October 2020.
[10]At the hearing regarding the grievor’s second grievance on the same issue, the
Employer made a motion for dismissal of the current grievance on the basis that the
Grievance Settlement Board has already addressed the issue and that the matter is
now res judicata.
[11]Having heard the submissions of the parties, it is clear that the grievor is seeking to
re-litigate his earlier grievance as he was not satisfied with the result. It is a waste
of legal and administrative resources for both the parties and the Board to have to
consider in a new grievance a matter that is between the same parties, relating to
the same set of facts, and which has already been decided through the adjudicative
process. As there has to be finality once a grievance has been addressed on its
merits, I uphold the Employer’s motion, find that this matter is res judicata, and
hereby dismiss this grievance as the issue is one that has already been decided with
respect to this individual.
Dated at Toronto, Ontario this 4th day of March 2024.
“Gail Misra”
Gail Misra, Arbitrator