Reading Between The Lines – How Employers Can Make Legitimate Changes While Respecting The Collective Agreement

Co-author: Lauren Ray, Student-at-Law

Many unionized employers mistakenly believe that they have no ability to make workplace changes. The recent arbitration decision in United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175 and Good Humor- Breyers, Unilever highlights how a careful reading of a collective agreement may reveal a host of legitimate changes available to employers.

Background

Good Humour-Breyers, Unilever (the "Employer") operates a manufacturing facility in Ontario, where a dispute arose when the Employer decided to transfer the more limited duties of the lower-paid light labourers to additional machine operators who could perform all functions on the particular line. Even though this required the Employer to hire additional machine operators who were paid at a higher rate, this change was aimed at creating more efficiency and economy by minimizing "lost time" during changeovers.