In June, a majority of the Supreme Court held, in United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 503 v Wal-Mart Canada Corp., 2014 SCC 45, that an arbitrator had reached a reasonable conclusion in finding that Wal-Mart's 2005 closure of a Quebec store constituted a prohibited unilateral change in conditions of employment following the certification of the union.
The Court noted that s. 59 of the Quebec Labour Code (the counterpart of the statutory freeze provisions found in labour legislation in the common law provinces) was not limited merely to preserving the status quo during negotiations for a first collective agreement. It had the broad purpose of promoting the exercise of rights of association by facilitating certification and good faith bargaining.
Anti-union conduct was not an essential component of a breach of s. 59. What was required, once the union had shown that the employer was not managing its business in accordance with its normal practices in effecting the change, was an reasonable explanation for the change that would have motivated a reasonable employer to do the same. Here, Wal-Mart had provided no justification for closing a well-performing store and altering the employees' rights to maintain their employment, which were 'conditions of employment' protected by the freeze. The matter was remitted to the arbitrator to determine an appropriate remedy.
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Norton Rose Fulbright is a global legal practice. We provide the world's pre-eminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. We have more than 3800 lawyers based in over 50 cities across Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Recognized for our industry focus, we are strong across all the key industry sectors: financial institutions; energy; infrastructure, mining and commodities; transport; technology and innovation; and life sciences and healthcare.
Wherever we are, we operate in accordance with our global business principles of quality, unity and integrity. We aim to provide the highest possible standard of legal service in each of our offices and to maintain that level of quality at every point of contact.
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright Australia, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa (incorporated as Deneys Reitz Inc) and Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, each of which is a separate legal entity, are members ('the Norton Rose Fulbright members') of Norton Rose Fulbright Verein, a Swiss Verein. Norton Rose Fulbright Verein helps coordinate the activities of the Norton Rose Fulbright members but does not itself provide legal services to clients.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.