The lawyers at Ryder Wright Blair & Holmes LLP have made significant contributions to the development of union side law. We have published important works and been counsel on ground breaking cases.

Examples of noteworthy contributions by members of RWBH include the following:

CASES

British Columbia v. B.C.G.S.E.U. (Meiorin Grievance) [1999] 3 S.C.R. 3 – John Brewin was co-counsel on this Supreme Court of Canada accommodation case which provided an entirely new method of analysis for determining whether or not employees had been the subject of impermissible discrimination. The decision resulted in a significant expanding of human rights protections for employees.

OPSEU (Sammy et al) and the Ministry of Correctional Services [2001] O.G.S.B.A. No. 59 – in this groundbreaking decision, Ed Holmes was successful in obtaining an interim order that the employer had to continue to pay employees who had been suspended pending an investigation.

OPSEU (Union Grievance) and Ministry of Health (Trillium Drug Program) [2002] O.G.S.B.A. No. 12 - Richard Blair convinced the arbitrator that there is an implied collective agreement term protecting the work of the bargaining unit in the Ontario Public Service and that the government was therefore prevented from using employment agencies to staff government programs. This decision led to the Bargaining Unit Integrity project which has resulted in literally hundreds of employees being members of and protected by a union.

Perth and Smith Falls District Hospital [2001] O.L.R.B. Rep. March/April 419 – David Wright was counsel in this leading case in the area of successor rights involving public services, in which the Ontario Labour Relations Board rejected an attempt by ambulance service operators to terminate the bargaining rights of unions upon the transfer of responsibility for land ambulance services.

OPSEU (Union Grievances) and Ministry of Community and Social Services [2005] 137 L.A.C. (4th) 1– Richard Blair and David Wright were co-counsel and established that the government could only contract out work where it took the steps to ensure that the seniority of workers would be properly protected. As a result of failing to do so, the government was required to compensate each affected employee for the loss of the value of their seniority – at a cost of $1.2 million to the government.

Re Clarendon Foundation and OPSEU [2001] 91 L.A.C. (4th) 105 – In this case involving racist comments made by a client of the employer, Alick Ryder successfully established that the employer is responsible to take prompt action to eliminate harassment and discrimination of this nature and, in a landmark ruling, obtaining an order that the employer was obligated to issue an apology to the affected employee for its failure to do so.

OPSEU (Alcock) and Ministry of Public Safety and Security [2004] O.J. 5481 – David Wright and Ed Holmes convinced the Divisional Court that employers are not permitted to dramatically reduce the wages of disabled employees who are able to perform part, though not all, of their jobs.

OPSEU (Hyland) and Ministry of Public Safety and Security [2004] O.G.S.B.A. No. 1 - This is one of a series of decisions protecting the rights of an employee who suffers from a susceptibility to second hand smoke. In this decision David Wright was successful in establishing that an employer has an obligation to accommodate an employee by moving the employee to a new workplace when it cannot properly accommodate the employee at his home site.

County of Simcoe Ambulance Services [2007] 162 L.A.C. (4th) 289 – Richard Blair was counsel in this landmark decision in which an arbitrator found that the obligation on an employer to accommodate a disabled employee under the Ontario Human Rights Code took precedence over regulations under the Ambulance Act and regulations under the Highway Traffic Act, and therefore required the employer to permit a paramedic to work on an ambulance as a non-driver where a medical condition prevented the paramedic from driving, but did not restrict his ability to perform any other aspect of his duties.

Entourage Technology Solutions v. CEP (Nicholson) [2004] O.L.A.A. No. 876 – Alick Ryder was counsel on this case in which the Company was ordered to accommodate a disabled employee who could perform most, but not all of his job duties, by permitting the employee to return to work to perform those duties which were within his limitations.

CEP Local 9 (Stuckless) and Precision Communication Services [2007] O.L.L.A. No. 193 – David Wright was counsel in this case in which the arbitrator rejected the argument of the Company that an arbitrator had no jurisdiction to review the unilateral decision of the Company to eliminate benefits offered to retired employees.

University of Toronto [2004] O.L.R.D. No 2074 - Richard Blair was successful in convincing the Ontario Labour Relations Board that persons employed to teach university courses on contracts of less than one year in length constituted an appropriate bargaining unit for which CUPE Local 3902 was entitled to be certified.

Ottawa Fertility Centre [2008] O.L.R.D. No. 35– David Wright was co-counsel on this case which has provided a very expansive definition of “health service integration” under the Public Sector Labour Relations Transitions Act, thereby ensuring that the bargaining rights of unions and job security of employees will be protected in a wide range of program transfers in the health care sector.

OPSEU (Lariviere) v. Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services [2005] 144 L.A.C. (4th) 157 – John Brewin was successful in convincing the arbitrator that an employee whose health and safety rights were violated by the employer was entitled to damages from the employer, even where the employee also received WSIB benefits for the same injury. (The decisions was upheld on other grounds by the Divisional Court).

Laurentian University Faculty Association (Social Work Teaching Load Reduction Policy Grievance) and Laurentian University [2006] O.L.A.A. No. 447 – in this decision involving a challenge to the University’s failure to properly reduce the teaching load for faculty, David Wright successfully convinced an arbitrator that, in the appropriate circumstances, an arbitrator has the power to require a university to hire additional full-time faculty members.

PUBLICATIONS

John Brewin is the Co-Author of Free Collective Bargaining: Human Right or Canadian Illusion, an analysis of the erosion of public sector bargaining rights in Canada.

David Wright is the author of the articles Arbitrating Insured Benefits Disputes: The Aftermath of Pilon – A Union Perspective (Labour Arbitration Yearbook 1990-1991 Volume 1) and Violence in the Workplace - A Union Perspective (Labour Arbitration Yearbook: 2001-2002 Volume 1).

David Wright is the Co-Editor of Labour Relations Board Remedies in Canada.