Accustomed to receiving “responsibility pay” under the terms of the collective agreement, 11 hydro plant workers in the newly created position of System Operator filed a group grievance arguing that the employer was violating the contract after it notified them that they would no longer be paid responsibility pay for hours worked when a supervisor was present.
Distinguishable from the collective agreement provisions on “acting pay” — payable in recognition of temporary reassignment to a higher rated position — under the collective agreement, responsibility pay was payable when two or more employees worked together on a job or project as a crew without supervision for periods of two hours or more. In these circumstances an employee would be designated to exercise responsibility and/or leadership over the other employee or employees.
Not closely supervised
Likened to the job of an Air Traffic Controller, the System Operator position is a highly responsible job that calls on the operators to perform complex tasks without much close supervision. Working rotating 12-hour shifts, two System Operators were always on duty — one of them, either by arrangement between the employees or designated by management, was considered to be responsible.
The grievance arose after management determined that one of the day-shift System Operators was improperly being designated as responsible and entitled to extra pay because there was a supervisor on site for the first eight hours of the shift. The union took the position that the System Operators on the day shift were (or at least one of them was) entitled to the premium because the System Operators essentially worked without supervision, that is, even when a supervisor was present, they were not actually “under supervision.”
All employees subject to supervision
The Arbitrator cautioned that it was important to exercise a degree of common sense and “avoid playing with words” when interpreting the collective agreement. “All employees in the bargaining unit are of course subject to the direction and control of management … that is, all employees are subject to supervision.” That doesn’t mean that all employees are necessarily and at all times “supervised” or “under supervision” according to the collective agreement provisions on responsibility pay, but they do report to a supervisor.
“In the case of the System Operators on the day shift, even although their actual work activity differs only slightly … from those on the night shift, the fact is that there is, for eight hours of the shift, a supervisor who is usually present and to whom, when they feel it proper to do so, they give a ‘heads up’, ” said the Arbitrator.
All of the System Operators report to a supervisor, the Arbitrator said, but when there is no supervisor at the control centre then they are indeed without supervision according to collective agreement provisions on responsibility pay. However, when a supervisor is present — during the first eight hours of the day shift — it cannot be said that they are without supervision, the Arbitrator said. The employer was right, the Arbitrator said, and it did not violate the collective agreement by discontinuing pay premiums in those circumstances.
