Cambridge, Ont., company ordered to pay warehouse workers for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
National Grocers warehouse employs about 900 unionized workers affected by the decision
A company in Cambridge, Ont., will have to compensate employees for failing to recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30 as a paid holiday, in violation of a collective agreement, an arbitrator has ruled.
A Western University law professor says this week's precedent-setting decision, which involved National Grocers Co. Ltd., will clarify how unionized workplaces handle the new national holiday.
"This interpretation — including the National Day [for Truth and Reconciliation] as a paid holiday under at least unionized workplaces — is going to probably be pretty widespread this time next year," said Michael Lynk, who specializes in labour law.
National Grocers is a division of Loblaw Companies Ltd. and owns a warehouse in Cambridge. The over 900 employees at the warehouse are represented by Local 1006A of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
The company had told the union in advance of Sept. 30 it wouldn't recognize the day as a paid holiday, as defined by the collective agreement.
The union disagreed and filed a grievance.
Language in collective agreement key
Arbitrator Norm Jesin ultimately sided with the union.
Its "strongest card," Lynk said, was language in the collective agreement that said the company would recognize a list of specific holidays, along with any future legal holidays declared by either the federal or provincial governments.
This is common language in collective agreements across Canada, Lynk said. Taken together, this case — along with a similar one out of London, Ont. — set a precedent that could make it tough for employers to deny unionized workers the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a paid holiday, he said.
The London case involved concrete workers whose collective agreement also stated their employer would recognize a list of holidays along with "any other holiday proclaimed by the provincial or federal government." The arbitrator, Adam Beatty, also sided with the union in a decision issued Sept. 28, 2021.
"An employer wanting to challenge the demand from its own workforce that it honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday is going to be up against two very well-written decisions," said Lynk.
"They'll have to prove that their language in their own collective agreements is quite different from the bargain language in these first two cases."
Day will have 'greater impact' as a result
Not only does the decision set a precedent for many unionized workplaces, Lynk said, it also reinforces the whole point of the holiday: to give people time away from their work and regular activities to reflect on and repair relationships between Indigenous people and the rest of Canada.
"If this was just simply another named day … it would really lose a lot of its punch and a lot of its meaning," said Lynk.
"The fact that it's now looking like it's going to be actually recognized through these decisions as a paid holiday, [it means] people then have the opportunity to reflect upon why we're asking for truth and reconciliation. It has a lot greater impact."
The federal government says it established Sept. 30 as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour "the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities."
"Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process," the government website says.
The Cambridge company will have to compensate employees, although the arbitrator hasn't yet determined a dollar figure. Lynk expects the penalty will be somewhere in the range of $150,000 to $200,000 in total in back pay.
CBC K-W reached out to Loblaw for comment Thursday but the company did not immediately respond.
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