TWU granted extension to file leave to appeal to Federal Court

The Federal Court of Canada has given the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) the go-ahead to appeal a previous decision that denied a contempt of order against Telus Mobility and one of its senior-level executives. On February 28, the Federal Court’s trial division ruled that the TWU’s Notice of Appeal demonstrated that there was sufficient cause to allow the appeal to proceed even though the union filed the appeal notice after the 30-day filing deadline. The Federal Court denied the TWU’s contempt of order petition last December (RoW, Dec. 20/02). The meat of the presiding judge’s decision lies in case law surrounding the existence of arguable issues in the Notice of Appeal. "It (the Notice of Appeal) provides details on the errors alleged to have been made and, in my view, on the facts in this case, is sufficient to conclude that there is some arguable foundation for the appeal," Justice James O’Reilly writes in his February 28 decision. The union filed its Notice of Appeal on January 9, missing the deadline by three days. Telus Mobility objected to the filing on the following two points: first, because the deadline for filing had already passed, the TWU shouldn’t be allowed to file and, second, the Notice of Appeal didn’t demonstrate that the appeal had merit and therefore shouldn’t be allowed. The TWU claims that it missed the deadline for filing due to a possible misunderstanding between its counsel and the Federal Court over which days were applicable to the 30-day filing period during the Christmas recess.\ While Justice O’Reilly notes that in itself is not grounds to accept the Notice of Appeal, he believes that it does play a factor and agrees that there may have been a problem in communications. In concluding, Justice O’Reilly writes, "Still, considering all of the foregoing factors and the overall circumstances of this matter, I conclude that interests of justice favour permitting an extension to the time limit set out in s. 27(2) of the Act in order to permit the filing of the Notice of Appeal." That’s a major blow to Telus Mobility, which had argued the TWU couldn’t file the appeal because it had missed the deadline for the Notice of Appeal by a couple of days. This could also prove to be a setback for the company’s continued use of its existing subscriber activation software, Apollo.02. The use of that software is at the crux of this dispute. (For a more detailed discussion of the Dec. 6, 2002 ruling, refer to the Dec. 20/02 issue of Report on Wireless.) Piece of the collective bargaining puzzle falling into place The two sides are knee deep in a series of hearings at the Canada Industrial Relations Board over the unionization of former Clearnet Communications Inc. and QuebecTel employees. The TWU wants to sweep all union-eligible Telus Mobility employees under the same banner, while the wireless operator is supporting the rights of the employees to choose (RoW, Sept. 16/02). For employees of the former Clearnet, the matter is simple because they aren’t unionized. But the issue becomes more clouded when dealing with employees of the former QuebecTel because their employees are split into two unions. The union won a significant legal battle last fall when the Federal Court ruled that the Industrial Relations Board could in fact re-open a previous agreement concerning the scope of the collective bargaining agreement between the two parties (RoW Update, Sept. 19/02). The Industrial Relations Board had ruled in February 2001 that the collective bargaining unit shouldn’t be limited to just Alberta and British Columbia, but should include employees from other parts of the country. The Industrial Relations Board has set two more weeks of hearings into the Telus Mobility collective unit, to begin next month. The first week’s hearings will take place in Vancouver, while the last week’s will take place in Ottawa. Both sides are expected to present closing argument during the last week. Since December 2002, Telus and the TWU have been in conciliation talks, which were extended indefinitely last month. As part of the conciliation, the union has undertaken a global review of collective bargaining agreements. Union officials tell RoW that it hopes to complete the review and settle all matters with Telus by this fall.

TWU granted extension to file leave to appeal to Federal Court

News | March 18, 2003

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