The grievor is a member of the employer’s emergency response team – members of that team are required to attend refresher training every year – the grievor attended a training session from 07:00 to 15:00 on his day of rest and was paid overtime – the grievor was scheduled to start his shift at 18:30 but called to advise the scheduling manager that he would report to work at 22:30 – the scheduling manager marked him down as absent on duty, meaning that he was deemed at work even though he was not – the collective agreement required that the employer make every reasonable effort not to schedule the commencement of an employee’s shift within eight hours of the completion of his or her previous shift – a few days later the employer advised the grievor that he was not entitled to the leave, and he was asked to account for the four hours as annual leave – the grievor complied with the request and filed a grievance – the collective agreement article in question applied only to scheduled shifts and not to overtime shifts – the grievor voluntarily attended the training session, which was not a regularly scheduled shift – he was not entitled to apply that article of the collective agreement – however, the doctrine of promissory estoppel applied since the employer had informed the grievor that he was entitled to the four hours of leave and the grievor had acted upon that information by not going to work before 22:30.

Grievance allowed.