The grievor referred a grievance to adjudication alleging a breach of his collective agreement – the employer raised a preliminary objection to the reference to adjudication on the basis that the grievor had not complied with the grievance procedure – the grievor referred his grievance to adjudication without first having consulted with the employer and whithout having received a response at the final level of the grievance process – the employer stated that it was not advised that the grievor did not intend to consult at the final level and that therefore a final level response was required – the employer alleged that it was contrary to the provisions of the collective agreement for it not to be given an opportunity to respond at the final level – it alleged that the grievance had therefore not been “presented” at the final level in accordance with section 225 of the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) – the grievor’s bargaining agent responded that it had complied with all of the requirements of the collective agreement and that there was no requirement for it to request a consultation – “present” was not defined in either the PSLRA or the collective agreement, but the parties had made a distinction between “presenting” a grievance and “consulting” on that grievance in the collective agreement – the collective agreement did not require that the bargaining agent consult at each step of the grievance procedure – the employer raised the issue of the past practice of the parties, but the Vice-Chairperson held that the collective agreement was not ambiguous, that no allegation of estoppel had been raised by the employer and that no estoppel argument could be supported – the grievance was only referred to adjudication once the period provided for the employer to respond had expired.

Preliminary objection dismissed.