CECBA Application, Structure, Scope/Exclusions, and Parties

• Author: Timothy Hadwen/David Strang
• Pages: 423-462

423

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CECBA Application, Structure,

Scope/Exclusions, and Parties

A. SUMMARY

The Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act, 1993 (CECBA)1 is

signif‌icantly dierent in several areas from the standard labour relations

regime set out in the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (LRA).2 Those dier-

ences increase labour relations stability and government control in the

Ontario Public Service (OPS) and specif‌ied agencies.

Under the CECBA’s generally applicable provisions:

• The statute applies to the government itself, and to other employ-

ers specif‌ically designated by regulation3 (as discussed in Section

B below).

• Fewer types of employees are included in bargaining units than

under the LRA, due to an expanded list of exclusions (as dis-

cussed in Section D below).

• Employers remain separate from other employers due to the

non-applicability of LRA-related employer provisions (as dis-

cussed further in Chapter 9).

• Essential services must be maintained during any strike or lock-

out (as discussed further in Chapter 8).

• Rights arbitrations are to be conducted by members of a single tri-

bunal, the Grievance Settlement Board (GSB), with accompanying

1 SO 1993, c 38 as amended [CECBA].

2 SO 1995, c 1, Sch A [LRA].

3 O Reg 386/07, Prescribed Agencies, Crown as Employer.

424 | ONTARIO PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR LAW

expectations for consistency in procedure and jurisprudence, and

some common remedial limitations, such as non-grievability of

classif‌ications (as discussed further in Chapter 11).

For the government itself, there are additional stability measures

designed to support the Public Service of OntarioAct, 2006 (PSOA)4

regulation of employment and produce more orderly bargaining:

• Only employees formally appointed to employment by the

employer are considered employees, meaning there can be no

f‌inding that dependent contractors are employees (as discussed

in Section D below).

• Bargaining units are tailored and stabilized, and proliferation is

avoided, through the requirement for a unique set of f‌ixed bar-

gaining units (as discussed in Section E below).

• In corrections uniquely, strikes are prohibited, and interest arbi-

tration is required (as discussed in Chapter 8).

The present degree of balance between standard collective bargaining

rights versus enhanced stability is the result of decades of gradual loos-

ening of the legislative control of collective bargaining in the CECBA,

and of greatly increased conformity with the LRA.5 Particular aspects of

that history concerning the government bargaining agent and the three

government unions covered by the CECBA — the Ontario Public Service

Employees Union (OPSEU), the Association of Management, Admin-

istrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO),

and the Professional Engineers Government of Ontario (PEGO) — are

set out in Section E below.

B. APPLICATION

The CECBA applies to

1) government in its labour relations with persons employed under

Part III of the PSOA, who are those formally appointed employees

working in ministries and in very closely associated entities that do

not have separate human resources6

4 SO 2006, c 35, Sch A [PSOA].

5 For more detail about that history, see Chapter 1.

6 See Chapter 2 for discussion of PSOA Part III employment.

CECBA Application, Structure, Scope/Exclusions, and Parties | 425

2) certain agencies prescribed by regulation, listed below along with

their current union bargaining agent if any:

• Algonquin Forestry Authority: no unionized employees

• Liquor Control Board of Ontario: OPSEU (formerly the Ontario

Liquor Board Employees Union)

• McMichael Canadian Art Collection: no unionized employees

• Metrolinx: Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1587

• Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre Corporation: Labour-

ers International Union of North America, Local 506

• The Niagara Parks Commission: OPSEU, and Workers United

Canada Council (an aliate of the Service Employees Inter-

national Union)

• Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation: OPSEU

• Ontario Public Service Pension Board: OPSEU

• Ottawa Convention Centre Corporation: United Steelworkers

• Science North: no unionized employees

• Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal: OPSEU

• Workplace Safety and Insurance Board: Canadian Union of Pub-

lic Employees, Local 17507

The Act applies “with respect to the Crown, Crown employees and

bargaining agents of Crown employees.”8 The term “Crown” is deemed

to include the agencies prescribed by regulation,9 and the term “Crown

employee” is specif‌ically def‌ined to mean (1)a public servant employed

under Part III of the PSOA and (2)a person employed by an agency of

the Crown prescribed by regulation.10 The rationale for the selection

of the prescribed Crown agencies is not evident and seems based on

historical proximity to the government itself11 rather than any logical

or consistent assessment of the consequences of the CECBA applying.12

The LRA does not directly apply to CECBA employers, their

employees, and their unions in their capacity of CECBA employee rep-

resentatives.13 They are only subject to the individual provisions of the

7 O Reg 386/07, Prescribed Agencies, Crown As Employer.

8 CECBA, above note 1, s 1.1(1).

9 Ibid, s 1(1.1).

10 Ibid, s 1(1).

11 See discussion about the history of CECBA prescribed employers in Chapter 1.

12 For a discussion of the rationale for inclusion in the CECBA essential services

regime, see Chapter 8.

13 LRA, above note 2, s 4(2).