FPSLREB Decisions

Decision Information

Federal Government Dockyard Trades and Labour Council (Esquimalt, B.C.) v. Treasury Board of Canada

Collection FPSLREB Decisions
Decision Rendered 2025-06-03
Citation 2025 FPSLREB 67
Before Christopher Rootham
Decision Type Labour Relations
Subject Terms Extension of time
Group grievance
Jurisdiction
Time limit
Keywords Labour relations – Group grievance – Employees’ refusal to cross picket line – Objection – Jurisdiction – Timeliness – Trigger date for delay – Employer reversed a prior decision – Application for an extension of time – Schenkman v. Treasury Board (Public Works and Government Services Canada), 2004 PSSRB 1 (“Schenkman”) – Broader labour relations interest in granting an extension
Original Language English
Note Please note that this decision will be published when it is available in both official languages. If you wish to obtain a copy of the decision in the official language it was written, please communicate with mail.courrier@fpslreb-crtespf.gc.ca.
Summary:

The grievance dealt with employees who refused to cross a picket line and report to work. Originally, the employer told them that they could take either paid or unpaid leave if they did not cross the picket line. On June 2, 2023, it reversed that decision. On February 14, 2024, it processed its earlier decision for those employees who used paid leave by deducting money from their pay. The bargaining agent filed a group grievance on February 15, 2024. The group grievance stated that the employer promised that employees could take paid or unpaid leave because of the strike and that it revoked that promise. The grievance also stated that the employer deducted money from the employees’ pay to recover the amounts that they had received as paid leave. The employer objected to the group grievance as untimely, stating that the trigger date was its decision on June 2, 2023. The bargaining agent stated that the time limit for the grievance began to run on February 14, 2024, when the employer deducted the money from the employees’ paycheques. It also argued that it was a continuing grievance. In the alternative, it applied for an extension of time. The Board mentioned that the parties’ dispute was one of long standing at the Board about the trigger date for a grievance when the employer tells an employee that it will do something and then does it later. The Board found that it was unnecessary to decide that point, as the grievance’s wording referred to the June 2, 2023, decision. The Board determined that the grievance was neither timely nor continuing. When it determined whether to grant the application for an extension of time, the Board applied the Shenkman criteria. However, it noted that those criteria are not exhaustive and that the grievance had a broader labour relations impact, namely, the questions of what happens when employees do not cross a picket line and what happens if an employer changes its mind about that after the fact. For that reason, the Board granted the application for an extension of time.

Application allowed.
Objection denied.

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