Employer and union disputed whether union dues should be collected from employees on temporary placement outside bargaining unit
This instalment of You Make the Call deals with a union’s complaint about an employer failing to collect union dues from workers in temporary placements.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) had an agreement with the union of its non-teacher staff, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), regarding temporary positions outside of the bargaining unit. Occasionally, the TDSB posted these positions which were technically in the area of other bargaining units and covered by other collective agreements, or were managerial in nature. The collective agreement allowed CUPE members to apply for these temporary assignments and, if they were successful, they were granted an unpaid leave of absence from their existing job.
Though CUPE members who worked in these positions were outside the coverage of its collective agreement, they continued to accrue seniority and receive other rights under CUPE’s agreement with the TDSB, such as applying for positions within the bargaining unit and grievance rights. Once the temporary position was over, the employee would return to CUPE’s bargaining unit as if she hadn’t left.
However, while employees worked in the temporary positions, the TDSB stopped deducting CUPE’s union dues. CUPE filed a grievance, claiming the collective agreement required the TDSB to deduct union dues from all bargaining unit members, even if they were working outside the bargaining unit temporarily, as long as they were still employees. The collective agreement stated the employer must deduct pay from each “employee to whom any pay is due in that pay period… on a uniform basis on all employees in the bargaining unit.” Had they wanted to exclude members on temporary assignments outside the bargaining unit, CUPE said, the collective agreement would have been negotiated to say so.
Also, CUPE argued it still represented employees on placement and they continued to have rights under its collective agreement, so union dues should continue to be collected.
The TDSB disagreed, saying the collective agreement only provided for the deduction of union dues from employees to whom “any pay is due” for work within the bargaining unit. It also said no dues were deducted from employees who went on other unpaid leaves, such as leave to run for political office. Since employees on placement were on unpaid leave and not earning pay within the bargaining unit, union dues weren’t required.
You Make the Call
Was collecting dues from employees working in temporary positions outside the bargaining unit not necessary?
OR
Were union dues required since they were still employees receiving pay and union benefits?
If you said the TDSB did not have to collect union dues from employees working outside the bargaining unit, you’re right. The arbitrator found the collective agreement’s language only allowed for the collection of union dues while employees were performing work under CUPE’s bargaining unit.
The arbitrator agreed that union dues could only be deducted from employment within the bargaining unit. The collective agreement specifically referred to the deduction of dues from employees in the bargaining unit, it said, and if it had meant all employees regardless of where they worked, those words wouldn’t be necessary.
“It is true enough that bargaining unit members on unpaid leaves of absence working outside the bargaining unit continue to enjoy important entitlement under the collective agreement, that does not, given the clear language of (the collective agreement), impose an obligation on the employer to deduct union dues,” the arbitrator said. “The collective agreement requires earnings within the bargaining unit as a precondition to the deduction of union dues.”
