CECBA Trade Union Rights and Obligations
| Author | Timothy Hadwen - David Strang - Leonard Marvy - Don Eady |
| Profession | Director, Legal Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of Labour - Associate Director, Management Board Secretariat - Solicitor, Ontario Labour Relations Board - Partner, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP |
| Pages | 398-436 |
CECBA Trade Union Rights
and Obligations
A. INTRODUCTION
e bargaining agents for government and desig nated Crown agency employees
are of four types:
a) trade unions under the Crown Emplo yees Collective Bargaining Act (CE-
CBA) with bargaining u nits in the public service: t he Ontario Public Service
Employees’ Union (OPSEU), the Association of Management, Admin istra-
tive and Professional Crown Employees of Ontar io (AMAPCEO), and the
Professional Engineers of the Govern ment of Ontario (PEGO);
b) trade unions or a ssociations for government employee s covered by speciali zed
statutory regime s: the Ontario Provinc ial Police Association (OPPA) under
the Public Service Act (PSA), Part II; the Federation of Provinc ial Schools Au-
thority Teachers (FOPSAT) under the Provincial Schools Negotiations Act ;
c) voluntarily recog nized bargaini ng agents for special types of public ser vants:
the Association of Law Ocer s of the Crown (ALOC), the Ontario Crown
Attorneys Associat ion (OCAA), and the Association of Ontario Physicia ns
and Dentists in Publ ic Service (AOPDPS); and
d) trade unions under CECBA with bargaini ng units at the designated Crow n
agencies: OPSEU (incorporating the former Onta rio Liquor Boards’ Em-
ployees Union (OLBEU)) and others.
e Public Serv ice and Labour Relation s Law Statute Law Amendment Act, S .O. , c.
[CECBA,], as amended , c. , s. –; , c. , s. –; , c. , s. ; ,
c. , Sched. J, s. [CECBA].
e Amalgamate d Transit Union Local holds bargai ning rights with t he Greater
Toronto Transit Authority/GO Transit. e Can adian Union of Public Employees, L ocal
Chapter : CECBA Trade Union Rights and Obligations
e two types of CECBA t rade unions, those i n the public serv ice and those
at the designated Crown agencies, a re discussed below in this se ction, along with a
review of the labour law t hat governs the rights and obligations of CECBA unions.
e bargaining agents not covered by CECBA are discussed in C hapter ,
under Special Clas ses of Government Employment.
B. CECBA TRADE UNIONS
) Leg isl ative Hi story
Prior to the passage of CE CBA, , the col lective bargaining of Crown employ-
ees and employers was largely carr ied out under the PSA, whic h provided for
some representation by employee associations, acc ompanied by binding i nterest
arbitration on a number of issues.
In , the Ontario Labour Relat ions Board (OLRB) dismissed an appl ication
for certication brought by t he Civil Serv ice Association of Ontario (CSAO) on
behalf of employees of the Niaga ra Parks Comm ission because those employees
were not covered by the LRA.
Under the PSA scheme, three organ izations were formed that were t he pre-
cursors of current tr ade unions: the CSAO, precursor to OPSEU; the Liquor Con-
trol Board of Ontario (LCBO) and Liquor Licence Boa rd of Ontario Employees’
Association, precurs or to the OLBEU; and the OPPA. e histories of OPSEU
and the OLBEU are addressed b elow in this section; while t he OPPA is dealt with
in Chapter , under Special Cl asses of Government Employees.
e introduction of CECBA is generally discussed in Chapter , Legisla-
tive History at . e partic ular focus here is on t he designation of bargain ing
agents. Under the Act, the government reser ved to itself the power to make regula-
holds bargaini ng rights at the Workers Safety a nd Insurance Board . e Labourers
Internationa l Union of North America, Lo cal , Brewery, Professional a nd General
Workers Union and the Internation al Association of Machi nists and Aerospace Work-
ers, Distric t hold bargaining r ights in connection wit h employees employed by the
Metro Toronto Convention Centre. In add ition to the employees of the Liquor Cont rol
Board of Ontario (L CBO), OPSEU holds bargaining rig hts in connection with t he em-
ployees of the Ontar io Pension Board and the Workplace Safet y and Insurance Appea ls
Tribunal. e United Steelworke rs of America holds bargai ning rights with resp ect to
employees of the Ott awa Congress Centre. See Gr ievance Settlement Bo ard website,
Stakeholders: Trade Unions/B argaining Agents: .
An Act to Provide for Co llective Bargaining for Crow n Employees, S.O. , c. [CECBA
].
, S.O. , c. , Sch. A.
See Niagara Parks Commission, [] OLRB Rep. Apr. . See also R. v.Ontario Labour
Relations Board ex. p. Ontario Housing C orp., [] O.R. , D.L.R. (d) (H.C.J.).
tions prescribing al l of the following: the entities representing t he Crown (such as
the Workmen’s Compensation Board (WCB)); the scope of bargaining units; a nd
the bargaining a gents themselves. e CSAO was designated as the barga ining
agent for the main bargain ing unit of public servants. Separate ba rgaining units of
employees of the Niagara Park s Commission and the Niagara Parks C ommission
Police Department were created and the C SAO was also designated as the bargain-
ing agent. A bargaini ng unit of employees of the LCBO and of the Liquor Licence
Board of Ontario was est ablished and the Liquor C ontrol Board of Ontario and
Liquor Licence Board of Ontario E mployees’ Association (“the As sociation”) was
designated. Final ly, Local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
was design ated as the e mployee organiz ation for employees working for t he On-
tario Housing Corp oration within the Municipal ity of Metropolitan Toronto.
In addition to the designat ion process, employee organizat ions could and
did acquire bargai ning rights t hrough the cert ication procedures set out in
CECBA, . For example, CUPE Local was gr anted representation rights
for a bargai ning un it of employees of the Workers’ Compensation Board by the
Ontario Public Ser vice Labour Relations Tribunal (OPSLRT). Over the years,
the OPSLRT granted representation r ights to a variety of other groups of Crown
employees. In its rst c ase the OPSLRT noted that:
e legislature by creating a separate legal structure for collective bargaining by
Crown Employees obviously con sidered that collective b argaining in t he public
sector of Ontario s hould not be treated i n the same man ner as private sec tor
collective bar gaining. us, in admin istering the Act, this Tribuna l must treat
such decisions with caution and only use them when they appear appropriate
for the public sector….
In our opinion, a structure providing for a strong, healthy, collective bar-
gaining relat ionship between t he employee organiz ation and the employer is
the one most likel y to complement the functioning of govern ment in Ontario.
Such a relationship mea ns the part ies come to the barga ining table on equa l
terms.
CECBA , s. , O. Reg. /.
Workmen’s Compensation Board, OPSLRT T/, October , .
See, for example, Addiction Research Foundation, OPSL RT T//, November
, ; Amalgamated Transit Union Local and Toronto Area Transit Operating
Authority, OPSLRT T//, September , ; OPSEU and Metropolit an Toronto
Housing Authority an d Community Guardian Company Ltd., OPS LRT T//, Sep-
tember , , as wel l as various private ambu lance service s that were deemed to be
Crown agents as a resu lt of certain earlier OPSL RT decisions: OPSEU and Ministry of
Health —McKechnie Ambul ance Services Inc. , OPSL RT T//, November , .
Ontario Housing E mployees Union, Local , CUPE, OFL, CLC v. e Crown in Ri ght
of Ontario (Ontario Hou sing Corporation, Windso r, Oshawa, Hamilton Authorities) v.
CUPE (Intervenor), OPSLRT T//, October , at , –. e OPSLRT Vice-
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