‘The provision is intended to provide the company with flexibility and cost-containment’
A Feb. 11, 2026 arbitration ruling carries a pointed message: employers can assign employees' accrued vacation to plug scheduling gaps during mandatory training, but only if the transition agreement explicitly says so.
That’s according to arbitrator Eli Gedalof who dismissed a grievance filed against WestJet by the Air Line Pilots Association, Sunwing Master Executive Council, finding the airline's practice lawful.
As WestJet absorbed Sunwing Airlines, transitioning pilots completed mandatory ground school before awaiting simulator training. Gaps between the two phases, sometimes fewer than five days, were filled by management assigning pilots' accrued Sunwing vacation.
Both collective agreements required vacation to be taken in five-day blocks, with Guaranteed Days Off (GDOs) attached.
The union argued these entitlements did not disappear during the transition. Roughly 70 pilots had been assigned vacation in sub-five-day blocks and were also barred from booking GDOs alongside their scheduled Sunwing vacation days.
WestJet's position was that a Pilot Transition Process (PTP), established as part of the merger, created a distinct category of "Integration Vacation" that operated outside the standard collective agreement rules.
Accrued Sunwing vacation
Arbitrator Gedalof agreed that Article 3-1.1 of the PTP, which gave WestJet an eight-month window to require pilots to use accrued Sunwing vacation, did not by itself justify the practice. He was unequivocal: "I agree with the MEC that there is nothing on the face of this provision that clearly supplants the five-day and GDO rules under either collective agreement."
The outcome turned on Article 3-1.2, which stated: "Eligible vacation periods may be limited by training dates and operational requirements and Pilots may be required to use vacation following transfer and while in line for training."
Gedalof found this provision applied to all vacation — both accrued Sunwing and prorated WestJet — and authorized sub-five-day blocks assigned during training gaps.
He also confirmed: "I agree that clear language is required to override a collectively bargained right" — a principle the company ultimately satisfied, but only through that specific clause.
Flexibility, cost-containment
Gedalof dismissed the grievance, ruling that WestJet was entitled to assign vacation in shorter blocks "specifically when it was assigned to fill a gap of less than five days while in line for training… Read on its own, Article 3-1.1 would seem to support the MEC's position."
The arbitrator found that the evidence established vacation was assigned in blocks of less than five days without attached GDOs specifically to bridge gaps between ground school and simulator training.
"The provision is intended to provide the company with flexibility and cost-containment during the transition period, by allowing it to unilaterally assign Sunwing pilots vacation to fill gaps in training."
As the evidence before him did not establish that accrued Sunwing vacation was assigned in blocks of less than five days for any other purpose, the matter was dismissed.
