In a recent decision, the Manitoba Court of Appeal overturned a decision of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench and reinstated the award of Arbitrator William Hamilton in a case involving 65 grievances related to Premium Pay. Arbitrator Hamilton had ruled that employees at the Winnipeg Airport Authority were entitled to earn both the Weekend Premium and Shift Premium for evening hours worked on the weekend.

In overturning the Court below, the Manitoba Court of Appeal concluded that the payment of the two premiums, which the arbitrator found were for different purposes, did not violate the collective agreement provisions against “pyramiding”. In reaching this conclusion, the Court of Appeal found that the Applications Judge had failed to give sufficient deference to the arbitrator and erred in concluding that paying both premiums for the same hours worked was synonymous with pyramiding. In this regard, the Court of Appeal upheld the Arbitrator’s conclusion that, as at common law, the presumption against pyramiding is rebutted when the premium payments are for different purposes.

This ruling represents an important victory for Public Service Alliance of Canada members at the Winnipeg Airport Authority, who since 2012 have been improperly denied payment of both these premiums for work performed on evenings during weekend. 

The Public Service Alliance of Canada was represented by Andrew Astritis of Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne & Yazbeck LLP/s.r.l.

On November 6, 2015, Morgan Rowe will be presenting a guest lecture in the University of Ottawa – Faculty of Common Law’s “Human Rights” class, as part of the class on emerging topics in human rights. This is the fourth year that Morgan has been invited to speak as part of this class. Her presentation will be focusing on topics related to sexual orientation, asexuality, and the regulation of personal relationships.

RavenLaw was proud to again support the Annual Ottawa Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (“LEAF”) Persons Day Breakfast. This year’s breakfast, part of LEAF’s 30^th anniversary year, focused on issues of access to affordable housing and the homelessness crisis in Canada.  

LEAF is a charitable non-profit organization that works to advance the equality rights of women and girls in Canada. The annual fundraising breakfast commemorates the Persons Case – the October 18, 1929 decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council that ruled that women were to be considered persons under the law and should be eligible to sit in the Canadian Senate. Proceeds from the Persons Day breakfast support LEAF’s litigation efforts and help to sustain local equality education programs, such as LEAF at Work and Only Yes Means Yes.

On November 25, 2015, Kim Patenaude will be speaking as part of a panel on “Disclosure of Medical and Personal Information: Rights of Employees and Employers” at the 2015 National Healthcare Labour & Employee Relations conference held by Insight. The panel will discuss privacy policy in the healthcare sector, how it stands out from other industries, what information the employer can and cannot request and how to effectively manage business with the presence of strict privacy and information disclosure policies. 

On November 18, 2015, Kim Patenaude will be speaking at a Reach Canada Education Seminar on the topic of individual disabilities in the workplace. Kim will provide an overview of invisible disabilities and discuss employee and employer rights and responsibilities with respect to disclosure, the duty to accommodate and discrimination. More information is available here.

On December 11, 2015, David Yazbeck will be speaking at the Canadian Association of University Teachers (“CAUT”) Defending a Diverse Membership Forum for Senior Grievance Officers on “How to Identify and Win Systemic Discrimination Cases”. David’s session will examine how to confront the difficult problem of subtle forms of structural discrimination in the workplace. More information on the Forum is available here.

Andrew Astritis recently delivered a guest lecture in an upper-year Labour Law course at the University of Ottawa. The lecture addressed workers’ rights under section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including a discussion of the implications of the Supreme Court of Canada’s recently released trilogy of cases on this issue. Andrew Astritis appeared as co-counsel with Andrew Raven before the Supreme Court of Canada in each of these cases on behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Raphaelle Laframboise-Carignan and Amanda Montague-Reinholdt of RavenLaw have joined other lawyers from across the Ottawa bar and beyond to participate in the recently established Refugee Sponsorship Support Program. The Program is a great new initiative of the University of Ottawa Refugee Hub, with support from the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, the Canadian Bar Association, Lifeline Syria, and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre. 

The Program was established in response to the major rise in interest in private refugee sponsorship due to the ongoing crisis in Syria. The Program offers pro bono legal services from lawyers of all areas of practice, who have been trained to offer general information and guidance to groups on the private refugee sponsorship process.  

To learn more about the Program and the services provided by the volunteer lawyers, visit www.refugeessp.ca.

On October 14, 2015, Dayna Steinfeld was a guest lecturer in the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law Civil Law Section’s “Introduction to the Study of Law” class. This undergraduate class provides an introduction to the Canadian legal system, beginning with the fundamentals of Canada’s legal framework and the common and civil law traditions, and then surveying the basics of different areas of law. Dayna’s guest lecture focused on contracts in the labour and employment context and how legislation provides a minimum floor of protection for workers.

On October 27, 2015, David Yazbeck will be speaking as part of a panel on “Tribunal Trends and an In-Depth Look at the Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada” at the Canadian Institute’s 15^th Annual Advanced Administrative Law & Practice conference in Ottawa. David’s panel will focus on how the ATSSC is working nearly one year after the rollout. In particular, the panel will discuss concerns over the impact of the ATSSC on institutional and judicial independence of tribunals, whether there are any proceedings challenging the ATSSC, and practice tips for the ATSSC environment. 

More information about the conference is available here.