Tag: collective agreements

Strangers at the table: Employers may need to accept observers in collective bargaining

by David McDonald In Canada, collective agreements are generally accessible to the public. Canadian jurisdictions provide mechanisms to file collective agreements with government authorities, and it is not uncommon for the union or the employer to post their agreement on the web. However, the process of bargaining itself is private and typically carefully guarded by […]

Arbitration awards: a permanent part of an employee file

by Emilie Paquin-Holmested In Canada, amnesty clauses are commonly found in collective agreements. The purpose of such clauses is to erase disciplinary measures from an employee’s file after a given period, usually between six and 24 months. Therefore, normally employers cannot consider disciplinary measures that predate the amnesty period when determining the appropriate disciplinary measure […]

Canadian Employer Uses Arbitration to Recover Losses from Employee’s Theft

by Brian Smeenk TFI Transport (doing business as Canadian Freightways) had a bit of a theft problem in its Calgary terminal in 2005 and 2006. The company was losing television sets and generators. It conducted an investigation and was able to prove that one of its employees, Wayne Spence, had either stolen or was knowingly […]

Effective and Streamlined Bargaining Preparation

by Daniel Pugen McCarthy Tetrault It’s been a cold, wintry start to 2008 (at least in Canada). The cobwebs from New Year’s Eve have passed and New Years’ resolutions already have been broken. As February began, the groundhog indicated six more weeks of winter and Ontario employees were counting down the days until Family Day […]