So far the unions seem to be winning – but it all depends on the language of the individual contracts. The unions have prevailed over the fact that September 30 is recognized alongside holidays such as Christmas and Canada Day for their members in four of the six BC labor arbitration decisions. published in the last eight months.

“And” against “or”

The federal government has declared National Day for Truth and Reconciliation an institutionalized holiday, while British Columbia has not. This split has led unionized workers in private sector companies, from car dealerships to wineries, to complain that their collective agreements provide for the recognition of the new national holiday. The contracts that led to the four successful cases all contained one keyword: “or”. The word proved crucial in cases where employers agreed to recognize existing legal holidays and any other holidays recognized by provincial “or” federal governments. Keisha Jones performs the Fancy Shawl dance at Orange Shirt Day in Victoria, BC, on September 30, 2019, before Ottawa declares National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. (Mike McArthur / CBC) In one of the two lost battles, on the other hand, the collective agreement governing the unionized employees of the Mission Hill Vineyards and the Mission Hill Wine Shop was only entitled to legal holidays declared by the provincial “and” federal governments. “Applying the simple and common meaning of the word ‘and’, I find that both the provincial and federal governments must declare any new legal holidays to meet the requirements,” Judge Alison Mataceski wrote in the Mission Hill ruling. “The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is not added to the current list of legal holidays in the collective agreement.”

Canada celebrated the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation last year as a way to honor lost children and home school survivors, their families and their communities. In contrast, National Indigenous Day on June 21 is not a federal statutory holiday and is described by Ottawa as “a day for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding contribution of First Nations peoples.” of Inuit and Metis. . “ As part of the federal law process on Sept. 30, Ottawa amended legislation to allow federal employees and workers in industries such as banking, aviation and railroads – governed by the Canadian Labor Code – to paid work permit. Thousands march in downtown Winnipeg to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Manitoba, one of the counties that chose to close schools and government offices on September 30, 2021. (Gary Solilak / CBC) The federal government left the provinces and territories to decide if they wanted to follow suit. This led to a somewhat confused situation as the provinces recognized the importance of reconciliation, but largely stopped adding another day of leave to their calendars with various legal holidays. Last year, the BC government closed schools and advised public sector employees to observe September 30 as an established day of “recognition of obligations in most collective agreements.” A newsletter on the provincial website states that the day “should again be observed as an established day of remembrance [in 2022] for those employees who are normally entitled to federal and provincial legal days “. The government says it expects many private sector employers to want to do the same.

He was forced to close businesses

In one of the arbitration cases, the employers – Marathon Motors and Jim Pattison Industries – stressed that their struggle with the International Association of Aerospace Engineers and Workers was “about the cost of running its business and not about the importance of National Truth Day.” and Reconciliation. “ The car dealership asked the referee in that case to follow the logic in the only other decision — other than the winery workers — where a union lost an offer to make September 30 a legal holiday. In that case, Referee Christopher Sullivan found that while their contract required United Steelworkers working at Terrapure Environmental to obtain statistics for “any other day declared a mandatory holiday by provincial and / or federal governments” – this the list has not been expanded. until Easter Monday. Sullivan said the conclusion was that “legal holidays such as Easter Monday, that is, federal holidays, are not recognized.” Therefore, he ruled against the steelworkers, finding that if National Truth and Reconciliation Day was treated as a mandatory holiday, then they would also have to take leave on Easter Monday. The referee in the Marathon Motors and Jim Pattison Industries case eventually sided with the club. In addition to the “and / or” discussion, the referee also had to look at the language in the contract which says a new holiday must include a company that is “forced by law to close down”. The union argued that it would be “absurd” to take this wording literally, because in 2022, no private company would ever be “forced” to close, which would make the promise of any new holidays irrelevant.
The employer argued that the words made sense because the contract was ratified in 1977, when Lord Day’s law still banned commercial activity on Sundays and introduced holidays, before being repealed as unconstitutional in 1985. “The Employer claims that I would exceed my jurisdiction by rewriting or amending the parties’ collective agreement if I ignored this appropriate language,” the referee wrote. However, the referee disagreed, saying that “a strict literal interpretation imposes a restriction which essentially means that there will never be any addition to the list of designated legal holidays.” He found that the employers had violated the collective agreement and ordered them to pay the employees what they owed them.