CUB 8764
IN THE MATTER OF THE Unemployment Insurance Act, 1971
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IN THE MATTER OF a claim for benefit by
DENNIS HILLS et al.
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IN THE MATTER OF an appeal to an Umpire by the claimant
from the Decision of the Board of Referees given at
St. Catharines, Ontario on May 9th, 1983.
CORRESPONDING FEDERAL COURT DECISION: A-175-84
CORRESPONDING SUPREME COURT DECISION: 19094
DECISION
MORAND, J.
This is and appeal from a decision of the Board of Referees involving a work stoppage at C.E. Tyler Company of Canada Limited.
The work stoppage took place on February 14th, 1983 as a result of a labour dispute between Local 6399 of the United Steelworkers of America and their employer. Local 6399 included hourly-rated plant workers. The office, clerical and technical employees who belonged to Local 7484 of the same Union were laid off because of a shortage of work caused by the strike.
The claimant Dennis Hills was a shipping clerk and belonged to Local 7484. His appeal is a representative appeal and the decision will affect those other appeals.
The appellant applied for benefits.
He and the other employees involved were found to be disentitled from benefits in accordance with the provisions of Section 44(1) of the Unemployment Insurance Act from 7 March, 1983 until the termination of the stoppage of work.
At the hearing before the Board of Referees, lengthy argument was submitted on behalf of the appellant. The Board of Referees upheld the decision of the insurance agent and denied the appeal. The appeal to the Umpire was on the grounds that the appellant and members of Local 7484 were discriminated against and that the decision of the Board of Referees was contrary to law. The appellant was convinced, by virtue of subsection (b) of Section 95 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, that the decision of the Board of Referees should be overturned and the appeal should be granted.
The appellants were represented by counsel, Brian Shell. Mr. Shell submitted that the decision was in error on other grounds but admitted that I was bound by the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in the McKinnon appeal, where reasons for judgment were given on May 5th, 1977.
Counsel for the appellant submitted that that decision is now bad law and that it should be reviewed in light of the Canadian Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms set out therein. He cited, in support of his argument, Section 2, which reads as follows:
Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms...
(d) freedom of association.
He submitted that to find that members of Local 7484 of the United Steelworkers of America could not draw benefits because Local 6399 of the United Steelworkers of America who were involved in a labour dispute interfered with the freedom of association of those members of Local 7484. It was his allegation that, although not involved in the strike or labour dispute, they were deprived of their benefits simply because of their association in the United Steelworkers of America.
In support of his argument, he referred me to the decision in the case of Durham Board of Education and Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, District 17 and Educational Relations Commission, wherein judgment was released on October the 24th, 1983. That case is under appeal and I was referred particularly to the decision of Smith, J. He alleges that that decision points out that the freedom of association is a fundamental freedom and should not be in any way encroached.
In my view, a provision in the Act determining the conditions by which a benefit should or should not be paid does not constitute an infringement upon the freedom of association. It may and indeed does in this particular instance work to effect a lessening of benefits to the persons involved because their local is in association with a similar local that is involved in the work dispute but the mere limiting of a benefit does not, in my opinion, affect the freedom of association.
In my view, the appellant has not demonstrated that the decision of the Board of Referees was contrary to the freedom of association set out in the Charter of Rights.
The appeal is therefore dismissed.
Hon. Donald R. Morand
UMPIRE
Toronto, Ontario
December 6, 1983.