No Anonymity For Grievors

The Labour Relations Board has upheld BC Arbitrator Stan Lanyon's decision in Sunrise Poultry Processors Ltd. v. United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1518 ( discussed previously here) that the names of grievors and witnesses should, as a general rule, be published in labour arbitration awards.

The union argued that British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) prohibits the disclosure of the names of grievors and witnesses in labour arbitration awards without their consent. In the union's view, the increasingly easy public access to arbitration awards because of sophisticated internet search engines and free legal websites like Canlii mean that individuals who participate in grievance arbitrations face more significant privacy invasions than in years past.