Black Gropper - Labour and Employment Lawyers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

NEWS

Speakers Series

Black Gropper is launching a speakers series this year. The series is available free of charge, to both clients and non-clients. Through the series, our lawyers provide 90-minute, on-site, interactive presentations on a number of topics, including the following:

Protecting the Privacy of Employee Medical Information;
Accommodating Disabilities in the Workplace;
The Perks and Pitfalls of Preliminary Applications; and
The Grievance Arbitration Process

We intend to expand and develop the series to add new topics, and to keep it current. Please e-mail us at info@blackgropper.com for more information about the speakers series, to arrange for a presentation to your organization, or to suggest new topics for presentations.

Black Gropper in the Community

On January 22, 2010, Allan E. Black, Q.C. presented on the difficulties Faculty Associations face at interest arbitration at a Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia (CUFA BC) conference. Mr. Black discussed the tendency of Universities to raise PSEC's restrictions and limitations on the ability of Universities to bargain on both monetary and non-monetary matters. Strategies were canvassed to assist Faculty Associations when faced with the controlling directions given by PSEC to Universities in British Columbia.

On March 13, 2010, , Allan E. Black, Q.C. will be presenting at the Job Steward’s Seminar for COPE 378.

On March 16, 2010, Shanti P. Reda will present at the 2010 Lancaster House Human Rights & Accommodation Workshop, on the topic of "Investigating Human Rights Violations in the Workplace: An interactive session."

In May 2010, Shanti P. Reda will present on the issue of mitigation of damages at the CLE Society's 2010 Employment Law Conference.

In June 2010, Pamela Costanzo will present on privacy law at the CLE Society's 2010 Labour Relations Conference.

Stephanie Mayor is co-writing two papers that will be presented at the upcoming CLE Society's 2010 Labour Relations Conference and 2010 Employment Law Conference.

Jessica Burke will continue as part of the executive of the BC Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Labour Law Section.

Shanti P. Reda has joined the executive of the BC Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Employment Law Section.

Colin Galinski is a member of the Planning Committee for the 2010 Quebec City joint conference of the CBA Pension and Benefits Section and the International Pension and Employee Benefits Lawyers Association (IPEBLA). The conference will address pension issues from a global perspective

New Associate: Stephanie Mayor

Black Gropper is pleased to welcome the newest associate to the firm, Stephanie Mayor. She is particularly interested in the intersection between human rights and labour law. Please see Stephanie's bio page to learn more about her.

New Articling Student: Colin Galinski

Black Gropper welcomes a new articling student, Colin Galinski. Please see Colin's bio page to learn more about him.

Some Recent and Ongoing Litigation

COPE 378 v. ICBC (HR187 – Short Term Disability Form Grievance) (Burke) unreported, January 31, 2010

We represented the Canadian Office and Professional Employees' Union, Local 378, in a policy grievance challenging inquiries made of employees on sick leave by way of the Employers sick leave form.

We were successful on a preliminary matter that the Employer could not introduce evidence on settlement discussions. We also obtained a significant victory on the merits of the grievance. The Arbitrator held that all eight questions challenged by the Union could not be routinely required by the Employer as currently phrased because they were inconsistent with employee privacy rights and arbitral authority, even though some of the questions had been used for years. Specifically, the Arbitrator eliminated questions about subsequent visits, objective findings, treatment and the treating physician’s specialty as they were found to be not reasonably necessary for the administration of the Employer’s short term sick leave plan. Additionally, questions about the first date of illness and physicians visit were re-phrased to focus on the current absence rather than the illness itself, so as to limit the amount of medical information disclosed to the Employer.

This decision signals an evolving and deepening acknowledgement by arbitrators of employee medical privacy concerns, and significantly restricts the type of medical information an employer is entitled to in the context of short term absences. This development is important because employers and unions have tended to rely on cases involving longer and more unique absences in determining question appropriateness for all cases of sick leave, whereas this decision strongly suggests a demarcation between the types of questions allowed in those cases and those routinely allowed for short term absences.

Rogers Sugar Ltd. v. Canadian Office and Professional Employees, Local 378 (Application for Interim Relief), [2008] B.C.L.R.B. No. B167/2008 (Adam)

Black Gropper recently secured a significant victory on a preliminary matter in this case, assuring that its client would receive procedural fairness throughout the hearing.

Black Gropper was successful in arguing that the Employers witness (the "Witness"), who had completed her testimony over three days of hearing, should not be recalled and that a new document she had created after her testimony was closed was inadmissible. The Vice-Chair ruled that "to allow...[the Witness] to revisit her earlier testimony at this stage would undermine the Union's right of cross-examination." The Union was also successful in arguing that a number of other documents the employer sought to introduce, which had an "obvious connection" to the Witness or which the union "likely" would have cross-examined the Witness on if the Union knew that the employer would rely on the documents, were either entirely inadmissible or could only be used by the employer for purposes of cross-examining the Union's witnesses.

This case is particularly significant because there are very few, if any, reported cases of the Labour Relations Board dealing with these issues.

University of British Columbia Faculty Association v. University of British Columbia ("UBC Senate Teaching Evaluation Appeal")

Black Gropper is representing the Faculty Association of UBC in an important application to the Court of Appeal of British Columbia. This case involves significant issues relating to the rights of University Faculty Associations to have their Collective Agreements enforced against the governing bodies of a University who are not signatories to those Agreements. A number of intervenors have been granted leave to intervene, or have applied for leave to intervene, including the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the equivalent employers' associations. Black Gropper anticipates that the matter will be heard in 2009, and expects that the decision in this case will have important implications for Post-Secondary Faculty Associations across Canada.