FPSLREB Decisions

Complaints based on section 133 of the Canada Labour Code (Code) alleging a contravention of sections 124 and 147 of the Code - Refusal to cross a picket line - Financial penalty (2 days' salary) - the complainants occupied positions designated as having safety or security duties for the purposes of the Public Service Staff Relations Act - they worked in an employment insurance office located in a shopping centre with 12 entrances - the other employees in their bargaining unit had planned to set up a picket line at lunchtime in front of the door of their office that opened onto the parking area - their supervisor had told several employees to take their lunch break inside the shopping centre - the complainants joined the picket line - at the end of their lunch break, the picket line did not break up, contrary to what had been planned - the complainants asked their supervisor to provide for their return to work - the latter told them to take one of the other doors in the shopping centre - the complainants asked him to call the police, which he refused to do -the complainants were 2.25 hours late in reporting to work - the employer deducted 2.25 hours from their pay and imposed a financial penalty on them equivalent to two days' salary - the employer argued that the complainants had not exercised the right to refuse to work provided for in section 28 of the Code - he added that the financial penalty was disciplinary in nature - the complainants responded that the picket line represented a danger and that the employer had been informed of this - the Board found that the complainants had not made it clear that the refusal to work was based on section 28 of the Code - the Board found that the complainants had not established that the financial penalty had been imposed on them because of that refusal. Complaints dismissed. Case cited:Gallivan v. Cape Breton Development Corporation (1981), 45 di 180, [1982] 1 Can LRBR 241.