Arbitrator rules management has right to slot worker in all stations
When he was assigned to work a shift in a lower-rated position, a B.C. coal miner was not pleased that a junior worker worked a higher-graded position that day.
Jim Campbell worked at Teck Coal in Elk Valley, B.C., when on July 14, 2015, he was assigned to a load out operator position. He noticed during that same shift that Scott Miller — who had less seniority — was working as a plant operator on the dryer floor.
Campbell’s seniority began in 2009, while Miller’s started in 2012. Campbell was rated in the plant operator 1 classification, and Miller was slotted in the plant operator 2 category.
The company operated under an 11-stage progression system, from labourers to the highest-graded plant control room operator.
Teck required employees who moved up the ladder to the top wage scale to be trained on all aspects of the plant floor, doing such tasks as loading trains with dry coal, then moving up to the top levels operating equipment and materials in the drying room.
The agreement specifically spelled out what can be done during a time when a slot on the plant floor needed to be filled (which was what happened on the day in question). It said: “Temporary vacancies or assignments of 1 shift or less may be filled by any qualified person.”
All employees were required to regularly rotate throughout the various operations in order to stay current with how all areas operated, according to Jeff Prybitko, senior supervisor.
The scheduling of who work ed where was decided on the floor and not by management, he said.
In the collective agreement, appendix B said: “All plant operations employees will be trained on load out.”
Each worker was paid his currently graded pay rate, even if he worked at a lower-rated position for a shift.
The union, United Steelworkers, grieved Campbell’s assignment that day, arguing a clause in the collective agreement gave him the power to refuse the shift assignment.
“Senior qualified employees shall be entitled to preference,” in transfers between jobs, according to article 5.01 in the agreement.
The union said Campbell should have worked a shift on the dryer floor and Miller should have been scheduled on the load-out operator position as he was the junior union member.
The company countered and said the assignment was not a transfer between jobs, but rather a regularly mandated rotation of duties and, as such, part of Campbell’s existing employment.
Arbitrator John Kinzie dismissed the grievance and said the company was well within its management rights by assigning Campbell to do the load-out job that day.
“In my view, the collective agreement does give the employer the authority to ignore seniority in one situation and that is in the circumstances of a temporary vacancy in a job ‘of 1 shift or less,’” he said. “In those circumstances, the employer can assign ‘any qualified person’ to fill the vacancy.”
Because the agreement specified that all workers — regardless of their pay grade — were to be trained on the load out, “it is clearly implicit in that requirement that all plant operations employees can be expected to perform load-out duties from time to time,” said Kinzie.
“In choosing which qualified employee to assign these duties to on any given shift, I am of the view that the collective agreement does not require the employer to be governed by employees’ seniority,” he said.
“Employees are not being transferred between jobs in these circumstances so article 5.01 does not apply.”
Reference: Teck Coal and United Steelworkers, Local 9346. John Kinzie — arbitrator. David McDonald for the employer. Colin Gusikoski for the employee. Feb. 1, 2017.
