Digest: Regina Qu'Appelle Regional Health Authority v Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, 2018 SKQB 78

• Date: March 06, 2018

Reported as: 2018 SKQB 78

Docket Number: QB17460 , QBG 3111/17 JCR

Court: Court of Queen's Bench

Date: 2018-03-06

Judges:

• Kalmakoff

Subjects:

• Labour Law � Arbitration Board � Judicial Review

Digest: The Regina Qu�Appelle Regional Health Authority (RQRHA) applied for judicial review of a decision made by a Board of Arbitration, requesting that the decision be quashed and a re-hearing ordered. Under the terms of the collective agreement between RQRHA and the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), the former was required to pay �charge pay� to a nurse�s hourly wage in circumstances where that nurse was required to perform certain duties relating to coordinating a unit, when the nursing supervisor was not on duty. In one of the facilities operated by RQHRA, a medical clinic open seven days per week from 9 am to 8 pm and handling patients on an appointment and walk-in basis, the primary care manager was not a registered nurse. Her role was managing staffing and physician support levels and other responsibilities, but she played no direct role in patient care. Her hours of work were Monday to Friday during the daytime. The clinic employed three full-time nurses and others on a casual basis, all of whom were SUN members. RQHRA did not designate any of its nurses at the clinic as a nursing supervisor or �in charge� nurse once the manager was hired and therefore no nurses were receiving charge pay. SUN filed a grievance and the board that heard it held that: where no nursing supervisor position existed in a health care unit, RQHRA was required by the agreement to designate a SUN member as �in charge�. It found that nurses at the clinic were coordinating unit activities in a way that warranted charge pay. It then decided that the remedy for RQHRA�s violation of the agreement was to order that...