A Saskatchewan court has dismissed an application from Unifor Local 594 against the Co-op Refinery Complex and an arbitrator that sought to overturn a decision made in 2020 over payments from an employee savings plan. The decision, dated Sept. 16, said that Unifor applied for judicial review of an arbitrator’s decision during a lengthy lockout that dismissed a union grievance over the interpretation of an agreement with the Consumers Co-operative Refineries Limited (CCRL). Much of the arguments stem from a letter of understanding signed as part of the old contract that expired in 2019. “The central issue decided by the arbitrator was the entitlement of Unifor members who participated in a savings plan to be paid CCRL’s contributions to that plan after the Collective Agreement expired,” the decision said. “The arbitrator determined that the employer contributions had not vested before the Collective Agreement expired and the employees were not entitled to withdraw those payments from the savings plan.” The union argued the arbitrator’s decision was unreasonable. Withdrawals made with job action looming The court application decision outlines the terms of the savings plan, which include allowing employees to withdraw “all the equity in their Savings Fund Account, except for the employee contributions and interest earned thereon for the current calendar year and the preceding calendar year,” with certain conditions. Contributions withdrawn for the current or preceding year resulted in an employee forfeiting the employer’s contributions from the same time frame back to the rest of the employees in the plan. Prior to the labour dispute beginning on December 5, 2019, most of Unifor’s members who had paid into the plan withdrew funds, which were paid out in January 2020 according to court documents. “Before the lockout, CCRL management employees approved all requested Plan withdrawals, including matching amounts paid by CCRL during the 2018 calendar year,” the decision said. “However, before December 31, 2019, CCRL management decided that the 2018 Employer Contributions would not be paid out to in-scope Participants during the lockout.” As a result, a letter was sent out to Unifor members that they would only be able to withdraw their own contributions. “CCRL had determined that Participants could not withdraw the employer contributions to Trust Accounts for 2018 or 2019 and interest on those amounts because, according to CCRL, those funds had not vested before the labour dispute began.” The funds continued to be held in the plan instead and were not used for any other purpose. “I pause to note parenthetically that, under the Plan, Participants were not entitled to withdraw contributions made by CCRL in 2019 until 2021. Nothing more will be said about those funds in this decision,” the application decision said. Arbitrator makes decision: ‘No obligation to comply’ Unifor filed a grievance in Feb. 2020 over Co-op’s decision not to pay the 2018 Employee Contributions. The arbitrator ruled that while there was no doubt that plan participants earned their employer contributions, “that alone is not enough for them become entitled to receive the payout of that contribution.” “They must not only have earned the Employer’s Contributions to the Plan but that contribution must also have ‘vested,’ in the Participant. The simple dictionary definition of the word ‘vest’ means ‘an unconditional entitlement,’” the arbitrator said, adding that the wording of the plan supports this. The arbitrator’s excerpt added that both sides state vesting takes place on Jan. 1, opening eligibility. “In order for a Plan Participant to be entitled to receive the 2018 Employer Contributions the Participant would have to be employed by the Employer on January 1, 2020,” the arbitrator said. The arbitrator also noted that labour law precedent existed for the expired collective agreement meaning that CCRL “had no obligation to comply” with the terms of the letter of understanding. Arbitrator ‘could have been more precise’: judge In the application decision, the judge examined the arbitrator’s decision as well as Unifor’s arguments, saying that while a statement from the arbitrator on the contract’s expiration “appears overly broad” given that rights under the agreement continue to exist, the judge specified that the arbitrator was specifically referring to the 2018 employer contributions in dispute to rule on the letter. “In my view, the most that can be said is that the Arbitrator could have been more precise in expressing his reasons,” the judge said. The decision went on to say that any lingering uncertainty or concerns over the plan and its technicalities could be addressed during negotiations between Unifor and CCRL. The judge ultimately ruled the arbitrator’s decision was reasonable and justified, noting a “review for reasonableness is not a line-by-line search for error and a reviewing Court must avoid slipping into a review on the correctness standard.” “The Arbitrator’s determination that Participants’ entitlement to the 2018 Employer Contributions had not vested and that these amounts were not due and payable to them was justified and followed an internally coherent and rational chain of analysis,” the decision said. “In addition, it was supportable, given the relevant facts and the applicable law. The Decision also fell within a range of defensible outcomes.” The full court decision and reasoning can be found here. The bitter labour dispute between Unifor 594 and the Co-op Refinery Complex lasted more than six months before a tentative deal was reached in June 2020. The seven-year deal was ratified later the same month. Unifor 594 represents more than 650 employees at the Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina. With files from Colton Wiens, Stefanie Davis and Michaela Solomon
