What's New

Once again, we held a very successful charity golf tournament. Thank you to all golfers and volunteers for a great day. (May 29, 2009 at the Canadian Golf and Country Club). This was our fourth event, having had three very successful earlier ones in 2006 and 2007 & 2008. This year, in cooperation with the Sens Foundation, our charity was Roger's House. Early in 2010 we will begin the planning for the next event and volunteers are always welcome. Please contact the CIPP office for details.

Arbitrator Rules in Favor of CIPP

On April 11th,2006 , Arbitrator J.F.Weatherill ruled that the City of Ottawa violated the redundancy provisions of the CIPP collective agreement and the accommodation requirement under the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Background

The grievor occupied a permanent part time evening position of Registered Nurse at the Island Lodge Long Term Care facility .The City of Ottawa eliminated her position in 2004 and moved to transfer her to a permanent part time day position. The grievor was initially told that her position had been declared redundant and later told that she was simply being transferred. In addition, she communicated to the Employer that she had a disability that precluded her from working the day shift .

CIPP filed a grievance citing that the Employer, having eliminated the position, failed to meet its obligation under article 23 – Organization Change and that it had not accommodated her based on her disability.

The Award

On the matter of “ Organizational Change “, the Board of Arbitration found that “ the employer failed to follow the procedures set out therein, starting with the notification to the union and then the steps set out in article 23 “.

On the matter of “ disability “, the Board of Arbitration noted that the City’s medical advisor had used the wrong test in determining whether accommodation was required and found that- “the definition as set out under the Human Rights Code for disability is – any degree of physical disability … that is caused …illness . Furthermore , it is now well established that this definition is to be given a broad and liberal interpretation. It is our view that the definition applied by the employer’s medical examiner is far too restrictive and is not the one required by the Code .Therefore , his conclusion that the grievor did not require accommodation cannot be supported”

The Board further found “that the employer failed in its obligation under the Code both with respect to the process used to ascertain if there was a legitimate claim for accommodation as well as in the application of the definition of disability“

In its decision, the Board determined that the “employer’s obligation under the Code requires more thana passive expectation that the grievor supply further information to support a claim for accommodation “, thus placing the onus on the employer to ask for additional medical clarification if it so requires.

Implications

This decision is a major victory for CIPP on behalf of all employees at the City of Ottawa.

It is significant that the City of Ottawa cannot avoid its obligations under the organizational change provisions of a collective agreement by disguising a restructuring with a different label.

Because the arbitrator found that the employer used an incorrect test to determine whether an employee is disabled and therefore requires accommodation, it must now proceed to change its test as well as its process.

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