FPSLREB Decisions

Policy grievance - Work schedule - Shift work - Immigration investigators - the employer introduced shift work (15:00 to 23:00, 5 evenings a week) at Immigration Investigation Services in the greater Toronto area (ISS) - the bargaining agent alleged that the employer had breached the provision of the collective agreement, which provides that "the Employer, except in cases of emergency, will consult in advance with the Alliance on such hours of work and, in such consultation, will establish that such hours are required to meet the needs of the public and/or the efficient operation of the Service" - the bargaining agent contended that, during the consultation process, which lasted over one year, the employer had not established the requirement for shift work - the evidence established that, prior to the introduction of shift work, after-hours service was provided through the means of overtime (16:00 to 21:00, 4 evenings a week) - between 25% and 29% of arrests made by ISS occur between the hours of 16:00 and 24:00 - the bargaining agent recognized the need for ISS to provide services on a 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year basis - the ISS overtime budget has been reduced from $600,000 in 1992-93, to $250,000 in 1996-97 - the bargaining agent had proposed to extend hours of work to 20:00, although this was in contravention to the collective agreement - however, the bargaining agent contended that most of the work done on overtime was low-priority work - the bargaining agent added that the employer had not properly considered the impact of introducing shift work on the efficiency of day-time operations - the employer argued that the bargaining agent did not provide any viable alternative to shift work - the bargaining agent responded that the employer had not considered any alternative to shift work - the Board decided that the employer had not breached the collective agreement - it found that consultations did occur and that shift work was responding to the needs of the public and, in light of the overtime budget reductions, was also an efficient operation of the service. Grievance denied. Cases cited: Lakeland College Faculty Association v. Lakeland College (1995), 35 Alta. L.R. (3d) 95 (Q.B.); R. v. Sampson (1995), 131 D.L.R. (4th) 192.