B.C. Ferry Services Inc. breached the collective agreement with its unionized employees when it temporarily laid off more than 1,000 workers in early April due to the pandemic, according to an arbitrator.
It is now up to the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers union and the company to come to an agreement for remediation.
In a Sept. 28 decision, arbitrator John B. Hall found that the company did not have the right to unilaterally lay off workers.
Union president Graeme Johnston said Saturday that the decision upheld the union’s view of the terms and conditions in the contract
“We felt pretty firmly that there was an understanding and a deal in place around layoffs and that deal seemingly wasn’t lived up to,” he said. “B.C. Ferries decided to do something different.”
It was “devastating” for many of the workers who were laid off, Johnston said. “Obviously, that is still to be resolved.”
Regarding remediation, “what we are going to be looking for is everything the affected employees would have been entitled to if not for the employer’s actions,” he said. “There will definitely be a monetary component to that.”
B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Tessa Humphries said the company had just received the decision. “Until we have had an opportunity to thoroughly review the decision, we won’t have any further comments.”
The company sent an email out April 3 stating it would be temporarily laying off hundreds of union members working on vessels and terminals based out of Tsawwassen, Swartz Bay, Horseshoe Bay, Duke Point and Departure Bay because of the impact of the pandemic.
It began issuing layoff notices the next day.
Between April 4 and April 10, B.C. Ferries notified approximately 1,115 union employees of what it described as a temporary layoff, affecting about 425 regular employees and 690 casual workers.
The company did not know when service levels would resume, telling staff it would try to recall employees “as soon as we can.”
In addition, some senior regular and casual employees were laid off while some junior regular and casual employees kept working.
The union filed a grievance, followed by an application to the province’s Labour Relations Board.
On April 11, 2020, the company announced it would rescind the temporary layoff notices issued to regular employees only and pay them 75 per cent of their base salary for days without work and 100 per cent pay on any days they were called into work. Casual workers remained laid off.
In May, the employer started to recall regular and casual employees due to an incremental adjustment of service as a result of increased demand. The reopening of the Departure Bay ferry terminal as service between Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay resumed resulted in a further recall of employees.
By June 28, all casual employees has been recalled to active status. By July 2, all regular employees were returned to active duty with full pay.
The five-year contract between the company and the union, representing about 4,200 members, expires at the end of this month. The parties are in the midst of negotiations, Johnston said. He would not reveal any information regarding the union’s position.
