FPSLREB Decisions

Employer's failure to implement a collective agreement in a timely fashion - Extension of time to implement a collective agreement - Correctional Services Group - Sections 21 and 57 of the Public Service Staff Relations Act (PSSRA) - Damages - the employer did not implement the Correctional Services Group collective agreement within the ninety-day period provided for in section 57 of the PSSRA - the employer did not realize it had missed the statutory deadline until after it had expired and took the following measures: approval of extensive voluntary overtime and work at home, and borrowing and temporary reallocation of staff - the employer also applied, after the expiry of the ninety-day period, for an extension of time to implement the Correctional Services Group collective agreement - the collective agreement was fully implemented 48 days after the expiry of the statutory ninety-day period - the employer alleged that the implementation problems were not foreseeable and that it had not been negligent or incompetent in its conduct - the bargaining agent responded that, by exercising due diligence, the employer would have known the problems that lay ahead - the bargaining agent requested that the Board retain jurisdiction to award damages to its members as a result of the employer's delay in implementing the Correctional Services Group collective agreement - the Board found that the employer had not acted in as diligent a manner as it should, or could have, and that it was unacceptable that an implementation date could come and go without the employer knowing that the PSSRA had been violated - the Board did not extend the period of time to implement the Correctional Services Group collective agreement - since the implementation of the collective agreement was completed at the time of hearing, the Board did not need to order compliance with the PSSRA - the Board further found that, assuming it had jurisdiction to award damages, it would not be appropriate to award them in the circumstances of the case. Application for an extension of time dismissed. Complaint allowed.