Ontario Labour Relations Board

Last updated

The Ontario Labour Relations Board is an adjudicative agency of the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development and was established by the Ontario government in 1948. It defines itself as "an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal mandated to mediate and adjudicate a variety of employment and labour relations-related matters under a number of Ontario statutes". Its current (2022) chair is Brian O'Byrne.

Contents

Role

The Board deals with many types of applications relating to labour relations within the province of Ontario. Most cases at the OLRB involve either the Labour Relations Act, [1] the Occupational Health and Safety Act, [2] or the Employment Standards Act. [3] One of the most important powers of the Ontario Labour Relations Board is the ability to certify trade unions as collective bargaining agents. The Board is also in charge of the union formation, termination and decertification. [4] It also commonly deals with claims of unfair labour practices, occupational health and safety reprisals, duty of fair representation cases and, construction industry grievances, among others.

Location

The Ontario Labour Relations Board is located at 505 University Ave. Toronto, Ontario. [5]

Decisions

Decisions issued by the OLRB are made available on CanLII and commercial legal databases. All reported OLRB decisions back to 1944 are available in the Ontario Workplace Tribunal Library.

Library

The Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library (OWTL) is attached to the Ontario Labour Relations Board and is open to the public. The library collects and organizes materials related to workplace health and safety, human rights/discrimination, pay equity, labour relations and employment law, administrative law and other related subjects. In addition to the Board, the Library provides services to the staff of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal. [6]

The library also holds the OLRB collection of bargaining unit certificates issued from 1962 to the present. Certificates issued from 2007 onward are available on the OWTL website. [7]

Publications

The Ontario Labour Relations Board publishes an annual report, bi-monthly reports of significant decisions and a monthly publication of summaries of significant decisions called “Highlights”. [8]

Support to other Agencies and Commissions

In 2008, by the signing of their respective Memoranda of Understanding with the Ministry of Labour, the Board assumed administrative oversight over the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal. The PEHT has its own OIC appointees (many of whom are cross-appointed from the Board), but relies on the Board for all its administrative and legal support. [9]

Bibliography

Notes

  1. "Law Document English View". 24 July 2014.
  2. "Law Document English View". 24 July 2014.
  3. "Law Document English View". 24 July 2014.
  4. Collective Bargaining | Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development.
  5. Contact Us - Ontario Labour Relations Board
  6. "OWTL | Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library".
  7. "OWTL | Search the OLRB Certificates Database".
  8. "Ontario Labour Relations Board - Publications".
  9. "Home". peht.gov.on.ca.
  10. 1 2 Publications - Ontario Labour Relations Board.

Related Research Articles

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribunal</span> Person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate or determine claims or disputes

A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single judge could describe that judge as "their tribunal." Many governmental bodies that are titled as "tribunals" are described so in order to emphasize that they are not courts of normal jurisdiction. For example, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was a body specially constituted under international law; in Great Britain, employment tribunals are bodies set up to hear specific employment disputes. In many cases, the word tribunal implies a judicial body with a lesser degree of formality than a court, in which the normal rules of evidence and procedure may not apply, and whose presiding officers are frequently neither judges, nor magistrates. Private judicial bodies are also often styled "tribunals." The word tribunal, however, is not conclusive of a body's function—for example, in Great Britain, the Employment Appeal Tribunal is a superior court of record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Kingdom labour law</span> Labour rights in the UK

United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK can rely upon a minimum charter of employment rights, which are found in Acts of Parliament, Regulations, common law and equity. This includes the right to a minimum wage of £9.50 for over-23-year-olds from April 2022 under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. The Working Time Regulations 1998 give the right to 28 days paid holidays, breaks from work, and attempt to limit long working hours. The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives the right to leave for child care, and the right to request flexible working patterns. The Pensions Act 2008 gives the right to be automatically enrolled in a basic occupational pension, whose funds must be protected according to the Pensions Act 1995.

The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board is an independent quasi-judicial tribunal that administers the collective bargaining and "grievance adjudication systems" in Canada's federal public service and in Parliament.

<i>Canada Labour Code</i>

The Canada Labour Code is an Act of the Parliament of Canada to consolidate certain statutes respecting labour. The objective of the Code is to facilitate production by controlling strikes & lockouts, occupational safety and health, and some employment standards.

This article gives detailed information on the employment situation in Hong Kong.

Canadian labour law

Canadian labour law is that body of law which regulates the rights, restrictions, and obligations of trade unions, workers, and employers in Canada.

Labor relations Study of work and workers

Labor relations is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work in its broadest sense and how this connects to questions of social inequality. It explicitly encompasses unregulated, historical, and non-Western forms of labor. Here, labor relations define "for or with whom one works and under what rules. These rules determine the type of work, type and amount of remuneration, working hours, degrees of physical and psychological strain, as well as the degree of freedom and autonomy associated with the work." More specifically in a North American and strictly modern context, labor relations is the study and practice of managing unionized employment situations. In academia, labor relations is frequently a sub-area within industrial relations, though scholars from many disciplines including economics, sociology, history, law, and political science also study labor unions and labor movements. In practice, labor relations is frequently a subarea within human resource management. Courses in labor relations typically cover labor history, labor law, union organizing, bargaining, contract administration, and important contemporary topics.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment is one of the oldest and most important Ministries of the Government of India. This is an India's federal ministry which is responsible to protect and safeguard the interest of workers in general and their social security. The Ministry aims to create a healthy work environment for higher production and productivity and to develop and coordinate vocational skill training and employment. However, Skill Development responsibilities, such as Industrial Training and Apprenticeship responsibilities were transferred to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship from 9 November 2014. The Ministry launched the National Career Service portal on 20 July 2015 to help bridge the gap between job providers and job seekers.

Advocates for Injured Workers (AIW) is a student legal clinic operating in Toronto and affiliated with the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. This clinic is supervised by the Industrial Accident Victims' Group of Ontario (IAVGO) - itself a community legal clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario. As per By-law 4 of the Law Society of Upper Canada, student work at AIW is reviewed by a fully licensed lawyer and hence exempt from the normal requirements to practice law in Ontario.

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) is an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Government of Ontario. It is located in Toronto, Ontario at 505 University Avenue, 7th floor. The Tribunal is the final level of appeal to which workers and employers may bring disputes regarding workers' compensation matters in Ontario.

<i>International Woodworkers of America, Local 2-69 v Consolidated-Bathurst Packaging Ltd</i> Supreme Court of Canada case

International Woodworkers of America, Local 2-69 v Consolidated-Bathurst Packaging Ltd, [1990] 1 SCR 282 is a leading Canadian administrative law case on the issue of procedural fairness and bias. The Supreme Court of Canada held that full board meetings of the Ontario Labour Relations Board to discuss matters of policy in relation to a case did not violate the principles of natural justice.

The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is a department of the government of the state of California which was initially created in 1927. The department is currently part of the Cabinet-level California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and headquartered at the Elihu M. Harris State Office Building in Oakland.

The SA8000 Standard is an auditable certification standard that encourages organizations to develop, maintain, and apply socially acceptable practices in the workplace. It was developed in 1989 by Social Accountability International, formerly the Council on Economic Priorities, by an advisory board consisting of trade unions, NGOs, civil society organizations and companies. The SA8000's criteria were developed from various industry and corporate codes to create a common standard for social welfare compliance. The current (2014) version of the standard is built on earlier 2001, 2004 and 2008 versions.

The Landlord and Tenant Board is an adjudicative tribunal operating in the province of Ontario that provides dispute resolution of landlord and tenant matters under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. It is one of the 13 adjudicative tribunals overseen by the Ministry of the Attorney General that make up Tribunals Ontario.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act is a South African statutory law administered by the Department of Employment and Labour. The full title is No. 85 of 1993: Occupational Health and Safety Act as amended by. Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Act, No. 181 Of 1993 and the Labour Relations Act, No. 66 of 1995. Several regulations under the act are in force. The English version of the act was signed by the state president in June 1993.

Labour rights in New Zealand are largely covered by both statute, particularly the Employment Relations Act 2000, and common law. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment carries out most of the day to day administrative functions surrounding labour rights and their practical application in the state.

The law for workplace bullying is given below for each country in detail. Further European countries with concrete antibullying legislation are Belgium, France, and The Netherlands.

The Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines, informally known as the Ham Commission, was a 1974 Canadian royal commission founded to investigate and report on the safety of underground mines.

References