Board rejects claim strike harming patients
The provincial labour board threw out a Saskatoon group home operator’s request that it end a strike in part because the company did not provide sufficient evidence that the job action would seriously harm residents.
Elmwood Residences Inc. filed its request for interim relief from Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU-West) job action on Feb. 20. The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board dismissed the request eight days later.
In a written decision published this week, the three-member panel said Elmwood had an arguable case but failed to demonstrate that the “very circumscribed” strike launched in mid-February could cause “potentially catastrophic” harm to residents.
“There was no evidence which persuaded us that the employer’s anxieties about the residents’ physical needs or well-being being adversely affected by the union’s limited strike action were well founded,” the decision states.
“Indeed, there was evidence to the contrary, namely, the union undertook to continue caring for the residents as they had prior to taking this strike action,” the board added in the 11-page decision.
The board went on to note that “compelling reasons” must be given for infringement of a union’s right to strike, and the withdrawn services in this case “mostly pertain to transporting residents to and from recreational activities.”
The union said in a news release late Tuesday afternoon that it plans to expand the strike beginning Thursday. Its members will no longer pick up, receive or put away groceries or accept relocation of scheduled shifts between group homes.
“A further withdrawal of services by our members is their way of conveying to the employer that they are serious about wanting to resolve this bargaining impasse,” SEIU-West president Barbara Cape said in a statement.
Elmwood representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
The acrimonious dispute began in February, when the roughly 75 SEIU-West members — who have been working without a contract since the end of 2015 and have gone five years without a raise — issued strike notice and cut “nonvital” services.
Elmwood, which operates 11 group homes in the city as well as a lodge that is not part of the dispute, responded by arguing the strike was illegal because it violated Saskatchewan’s essential services legislation — an allegation the union disputes.
Both parties subsequently agreed to return to bargaining, but the union quickly accused Elmwood of bad-faith bargaining.
At the time, Cape said Elmwood wanted workers to vote on a zero per cent wage increase, while Elmwood executive director Colleen Stenhouse called the union’s position “distressing and disappointing.”
In addition to its request for relief, Elmwood has filed an unfair labour practices complaint, arguing that SEIU-West took job action without first negotiating an essential services agreement. It will be heard later this month in Saskatoon.