Employer breached collective agreement: Arbitrator
A dispute around lunch breaks was resolved recently when an arbitrator decided the employer had breached the collective agreement.
The group grievance was filed in June 2014, however, only three of the original employees were affected with the recent decision as one had since left the company and another had died.
Teamsters Local 879 claimed Centennial Concrete (Niagara) violated the collective agreement by not paying for lunch breaks that were worked.
Article 8.02 stated: “It is understood that employees may take one-half (1/2) hour for lunch without pay during the working period to start at a time designated by the dispatcher between the fourth and sixth hour worked.”
For the period covered by grievance, the dispatcher very seldom designated a time for a lunch break.
Typically, in the ready-mix concrete industry, drivers are subject to the needs of the customers and the drivers may have to forego a lunch break if their services are needed by the customers, said arbitrator Christopher Albertyn. If a driver is not able to take his unpaid lunch break, the employer is liable to pay him for the half-hour worked.
In about 2013, Centennial decided to no longer pay for the worked lunch breaks and this decision was maintained until December 2014. But the employees kept a record of some of the days when they were unable to take a lunch break.
And sometimes a worker would have moved into overtime because of the non-payment of the worked lunch break but, in the calculation of damages, the regular rate of pay, not the overtime rate, had been used throughout.
As a result, the arbitrator determined the following hours of work and damages were due to the employees: Jim McNair: 54.5 hours x $22/hour = $1,199; Jason Gillis: 13.5 hours x $21/hour = $283.50; Mark McCallum: 2.5 hours x $20/hour = $50.
Centennial breached the collective agreement by failing to pay the employees the amounts stipulated above, said Albertyn, so the grievance was upheld and the employer was ordered to pay the amounts.
“The company is further ordered to advise (Ernie Bishop, vice-president) of the union, upon payment being made, as ordered, by providing him with a copy of the cheques issued.”
