Man wins case for leave pay for time missed during blizzard

CHARLOTTETOWN — In what might be a moral victory for every Canadian who ever had to go to work in bad weather, a P.E.I. man has won a five-year battle to get 3.5 hours worth of pay after being unable to get to the office.

A labour panel granted Leslie Smith leave pay for time missed during a blizzard, agreeing that the evidence showed roads were not safe for travel.

“It would not have been wise for him to endanger his life or physical health by driving in very difficult road conditions from his home to his workplace, which was an hour away,” adjudicator Nathalie Daigle said in a decision from a panel of the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board.

“Based on the evidence, I am satisfied [he] made reasonable efforts to get to work and that the snowstorm prevented him from travelling to his workplace.”

Smith filed a grievance against the Canada Revenue Agency after it refused to provide paid leave for the hours he was not at the Tax Services Office in Charlottetown on Dec. 4, 2013.

The panel ruling said the office remained open in the morning, but closed at 1 p.m. due to inclement weather.

It said Smith was living in Summerside, about an hour from the office, and left home at 7 a.m. He spent about 25 minutes on unplowed roads before deciding to return home after seeing a four-wheel-drive truck in a ditch.

The CRA agreed to four hours of paid leave because of the early closure, and one hour for Smith’s efforts to get to work, but refused to pay him the remaining 3.5 hours as paid leave, under a clause he cited in the collective agreement.