Here at AQR Law, we’re thrilled to wrap up 2021 with several significant December victories on behalf of workers. Our firm continues to grow and build its capacity to fight the good fight on behalf of unions and their members and we’re looking forward to carrying this momentum into 2022.
Workers win retroactive wage increase of more than $3.50 per hour
CUPE Local 7000 SkyTrain members working as Vehicle and Support Shop technicians will get a wage increase of more than $3.50 per hour retroactive to Sept 2019. In the last round of bargaining, the Union and SkyTrain agreed to do a job and wage review of Vehicle and Support Shop Technicians, highly skilled employees who apply a variety of trades backgrounds in a team environment to keep SkyTrain running safely and smoothly. At the hearing, union technicians passionately described how they innovate solutions – at times teaching suppliers how to test and repair their own products – while dealing with technology that includes both brand new and original equipment. This important victory begins to recognize how valuable these technicians are to our public transit network, particularly as the system continues to expand to meet the needs of the region.
The Vehicle Technician award comes on the heels of another important victory Local 7000. In an earlier award, all skilled-trades were awarded a 2% trades adjustment in addition to negotiated increases. This was based on the outcome of a process agreed to in bargaining to compare the position and wage rates of Power Technician at Skytrain with the Transit Power Technician at Coast Mountain Bus. Both SkyTrain and Coast Mountain Bus are part of the TransLink organization. According to the agreement, if the comparison indicated that the SkyTrain power techs were underpaid than all skilled trades would get the trades adjustment. Arbitrator Ready found that the SkyTrain power technicians perform the work of not only the Transit Power Technicians, but also the Transit Power Electricians and then some, and were entitled to a higher wage rate.
It was our firm’s great pleasure to represent CUPE Local 7000 and its members as they strive for just compensation and respect from their Employer. The arbitration awards may be found here and here.
Workers secure right to be paid out unused vacation
Until recently, the City of Burnaby had a “use it or lose it” approach to its employees’ vacation—meaning that if a worker did not use all of their annual vacation or defer it into specific deferral banks (which can only take a limited amount of vacation time per year), the vacation was lost. This meant that employees were not getting paid out for their leftover vacation time. This practice was a big problem for members, many of whom were unable to take all of their vacation throughout the year due to their workloads and lost big portions of their vacation entitlements because of it.
In late 2020, the Burnaby Civic Employees’ Union (CUPE, Local 23) filed a policy grievance about the City’s practice, arguing that it violated the three collective agreements in place between the Union and the City of Burnaby and that it was contrary to the Employment Standards Act. The Union argued that employees should be paid out for their unused and undeferred vacation. On December 14, 2021, after more than a year of the Union advocating hard for its members’ vacation rights, the City of Burnaby agreed that employees should be paid out for their leftover vacation at the end of the year and agreed the make this decision retroactive to 2020.
Members of the Burnaby Civic Employees’ Union can look forward to receiving a payout in early 2022 reflecting all leftover vacation from 2020 and 2021, and to enjoying this right going forward. We were thrilled to assist the Union in ensuring members get access to all of their hard-earned vacation.
BC Supreme Court certifies class action against the Pan Pacific Hotel
On December 10, 2021, BC Supreme Court Justice Matthews issued a decision in which it certified a class action against the Pan Pacific Hotel. The class action was launched by Romuel Escobar, a 25 year hotel employee and member of UNITE HERE Local 40. The lawsuit is on behalf of hotel workers whose hours were dramatically cut or eliminated entirely by the Pan Pacific, without being formally laid off. Pan Pacific sent them messages assuring them COVID-19 was a journey they would “take together” and that the Hotel would “be here for you”. The class action claims workers were unaware that – despite the reassuring messaging – the Pan Pacific had already decided to terminate dozens of them based on a detailed plan intended to minimize the Hotel’s liability for termination pay under the Employment Standards Act. The claim also alleges that, when the Pan Pacific learned workers were organizing with UNITE HERE Local 40, it abandoned its initial detailed plan and terminated workers it believed were union supporters instead.
A separate class action has also been launched against the Pan Pacific Hotel for eliminating workers’ entitlement to benefits by converting them from regular workers to casual workers.
Hotel workers were hit hard by the consequences of the pandemic and this decision sets the course for some redress while their union works hard to bargain a fair first collective agreement.
LRB rules in favour of UNITE HERE Local 40
The Labour Relations Board handed down two important decisions in favour of Local 40 in December. In 2021 BCLRB 197, the LRB found that Pan Pacific had committed an unfair labour practice when it changed the terms of employment during the freeze period after certification contrary to s. 45 of the Code. In a separate decision, 2021 BCLRB 194, also involving the Pan Pacific, the Board found that the Pan Pacific had committed an unfair labour practice when it refused to give the union the telephone numbers of members, taking the position that email addresses were enough. The employer also took the position that it didn’t have to provide telephone numbers of a group of members, the on-call employees, because it didn’t consider them to be part of the bargaining unit. The Board found that on-call employees are part of the bargaining unit and dismissed the employer’s complaint that the union was bargaining in bad faith because it was pursuing a demand for recall rights for on -call employees.
Onward to 2022!
We are excited to share these victories with you as we close out 2021. We hope they inspire you in your continued struggles for justice as they do for us here at AQR Law as we look forward to the new year.