Sallenback and Treasury Board (Solicitor General Canada – Correctional Service)

Full Text

166-2-28734
Sallenback and Treasury Board (Solicitor General Canada – Correctional Service)

Before: B. Turner
Appearances: T. Woytiuk, for the Grievor; C. Bidal, for the Employer
Decision rendered: September 15, 1999

Financial penalty (20 days' pay) – Aggressive behaviour towards coworker – Grievance procedure – Timeliness – Request for an extension of the time limit – paragraph 63(b) of the P.S.S.R.B. Regulations and Rules of Procedure, 1993 (Regulations) – the employer imposed on the grievor, a correctional officer, a financial penalty equivalent to twenty days' pay for having assaulted a coworker – this incident also led to the laying of criminal charges against the grievor – the grievor grieved the disciplinary action outside the time limit provided for doing so in the collective agreement – at each step of the grievance process, the employer raised the timeliness issue – before the hearing, the employer wrote to the Board to object to the timeliness of the grievance – at the opening of the hearing, the grievor requested, under paragraph 63(b) of the Regulations, an extension of the time limit to file a grievance – he alleged that he was not aware of the time limit at the time he filed his grievance and that he had been confused by the grievance and the criminal processes – he also argued that he had been worried about his upcoming criminal trial and had not realized he had filed his grievance out of time – the employer responded that the grievor had had bargaining agent representation before the imposition of the disciplinary action, as well as at all steps of the grievance process; that the timeliness issue had been raised by the employer at all steps of the grievance process and that the grievor had no valid reason for not having met the time limit or having requested an extension of the time limit before the date of the hearing – the adjudicator found that the grievor had not provided reasons sufficient to warrant an extension of the time limit.

Grievance denied.

Cases cited: Lusted (166-2-21370); Sittig (166-2-24117).