I am very pleased to announce the majority decision in the Technologies Layoff grievance. The majority has found in the Union’s favour and has upheld the grievance. The Decision is attached here and will soon be public record. We anticipate that EPCOR will Appeal the Decision but it still stands.
It is a long read but to summarize from page 50, “where stepping the employees down from permanent status following layoff for purposes of recall, found to be at odds with the collective agreement, did not contain contract language nearly so strong or specific as with the language of Article 11.06. This specific provision in our view, governs the situation at hand and requires that the laid-off affected employees be considered as having returned to work with their permanent status intact into temporary assignments, for whatever period of time until the next layoff, were that to occur. It does not contemplate returning these laid-off permanent employees having their status converted to temporary employee.”
Basically the panel found that EPCOR laid off Our Members and then hired them back but in a Temporary capacity. When they discovered they still required these employees, they should have brought them back whole as Permanent Employees.
Now we will be sitting down with EPCOR and determining what compensation is required for any Members who have come back in a Temporary role.
This outcome will also determine what happens with the second round of layoffs and how we proceed with that. Please bear with us. We have won the battle but now have a lot of work to do with EPCOR to determine compensation and how we deal with the next Grievance.
Steve Southwood
Business Manager, IBEW 1007