Work-Refusing Employee Did Not Have Right To Delay Investigation For 2 Hours Until Her Preferred Union Representative Could Attend

A correctional officer did not have the right to delay her employer's investigation of her work refusal for two hours while her preferred union representative attended to "personal" matters.

The correctional officer's union was nearing a strike deadline. The employee and five other correctional officers attended at work and engaged in a work refusal when they learned that 50 of their colleagues had called in sick and that the institution was being run by management on that day.

The employer advised that it wished to engage in a "Stage 1" work refusal investigation. The employee asked for a certain union representative to assist her, and asked to wait two hours while that union representative, who was not at the workplace at that time, attended to personal matters. The employer advised the six correctional officers that if they did not participate in the investigation, they would be deemed to have abandoned their work refusal, which the employee took as a "threat".