E-Signed Union Membership Cards (Mostly) Accepted By Labour Relations Board

In what appears to be the first decision of its kind, the British Columbia Labour Relations Board (the "Board") recently accepted electronically signed union membership cards submitted in support of a union certification application.

Context

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (the "Union") had applied under section 18 of the Labour Relations Code (the " Code") for certification of a unit of the employer's employees.

However,  the Union didn't use the ordinary pen and paper practice of signed membership cards and opted instead to use electronically signed membership cards. The cards in question were created using an e-signature software program, with mandatory "Name", "Signature" and "Date" fields, and sent to prospective union members via email. The recipients could then sign using either a "draw" function (with finger or stylus) or a "type" function. In the latter case, the program automatically converted the typed name into a font which