Canadian Employment and Labor Law

Employment and Labour Law
Suggested Resource:
• www.canlii.org, https://www.ontario.ca/laws
Length:
• Papers should not be longer than 8 pages (double spaced) excluding a cover page.
• Format: 8.5” x 11” paper, Times New Roman 12 point font, within minimum 1” margins.
• Any pages beyond 6 pages will not be read nor considered in marking the assignment.
Term Value of this assignment: 25%
Assignment Requirements:
• Please answer the questions in an organized and coherent way.
• Please use headings and if appropriate, use sub-headings.
• Please write in full paragraphs.
• Introduction and conclusion that reinstate or summarize the facts of the case are not required.
• You are not required to use external sources, but feel free to do so.
• Collaboration or group work is forbidden.
• You are required to refer to relevant legal tests, cases and legislative provisions to support your
arguments (cases from Doorey are adequate, but feel free to research externally).
• Acknowledgement of sources (need not follow a formally-recognized citation style, but
adequate to identify the author, title, article source, legislation source, jurisprudence source,
date, and/or internet link, etc.):
• Be sure that you cite and quote all sources used to avoid academic misconduct.
• It is not sufficient to simply list the sources at the end of your paper.
• Whenever you cite or quote, please indicate the source at the end of your sentence in
brackets or in a footnote.
• A bibliography list is not required.
Marking Rubric: Out of 25 points
• Quality of analysis and legal accuracy of arguments for the three issues (including a logical
conclusion on which side has stronger arguments): 20 (5 x 4 issues = 20 points).
• Organization, grammar, spelling, and citing and quotation of sources: 5 points.

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Facts
Magic Cream Inc. is a company that manufactures a special, medicated cream that is used to cure the
“Turkey Pox” virus. Magic Cream Inc. is exclusively manufactured in the province of Ontario, in the
cities of Brockville and Barrie. It is manufactured nowhere else in the world.
The Brockville manufacturing plant of Magic Cream Inc. employs 100 people: 40 production line
employees who mix the chemicals and package them into the cream tubes, 20 managers who oversee
and discipline workers, 10 human resource professionals, and 30 scientists who don’t directly manage
staff but hold the company secrets for the “Magic Cream” formula.
The Barrie manufacturing plant also has 100 employees, all of whom are production line employees
who mix the chemicals and package them into cream tubes.
Lately there have been several chemical spills at the Brockville plant, leading to some minor injuries,
applications for Workplace Safety and Insurance Board benefits, and several Ministry of Labour
complaints and investigations.
Mohan is one of the 40 production line employees at the Brockville plant. Mohan is very concerned
with the health and safety issues occurring at the Brockville plant. He has also heard from friends who
work in the Barrie plant, but the Barrie plant is not experiencing any health and safety issues.
In order to address the health and safety issues, Mohan contacts the Ontario Peoples’ Union (OPU).
Mohan asks the OPU to help to bring a union into the Brockville plant. The OPU organizes some secret
meetings with several other Magic Cream workers in Brockville. After looking at the Brockville plant
employee numbers of 100 employees, the OPU figures that 40 signed membership cards by all of the
production line employees will be more than enough to submit to the Ontario Labour Relations Board
for union certificaiton. OPU, local 123, then submits an application for certification as the exclusive
bargaining agent for “all employees of Magic Cream Inc. in the Brockville, Ontario manufacturing
plant, except for supervisors.” OPU, local 123, includes the 40 signed membership cards in its
submission.
Magic Cream Inc’s management responds to the union certification application. In its response it states
that:
• The correct bargaining unit description is actually “all employees of Magic Cream Inc.
in the Brockville and Barrie, Ontario plants, except for (a) supervisors, (b) human
resources staff as they are acting on behalf of management and privy to employment and
labour relations information, and (c) scientists who hold proprietary, confidential,
management information and thus who must be excluded from the bargaining unit.”
• The total number of proposed employees for the bargaining unit, counting the numbers
in the Barrie and Brockville plant, are 140 members.

Question 1: Provide both the OPU, local 123, and Magic Cream Inc.’s arguments in relation to the
definition of the “bargaining unit”.

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At the same time Magic Cream Inc. management submits its response to the Ontario Labour Relations
Board, it starts inviting each of the 40 production employees from the Brockville plant, and the 100
production employees from Barrie, out for one-on-one dinners with the Chief Executive Officer of
Magic Cream Inc. During the dinners, the CEO says to each of the employees, quite ambiguously, that
they should “consider their careers” and that she would give each of them a $5,000 per year raise if
they brought their safety concerns to her directly and just dropped this “union thing.”
In the meantime, the Ontario Labour Relations Board reaches a decision regarding the appropriate
bargaining unit, the votes are counted, and OPU, local 123 loses the vote.

Question 2: OPU, local 123, would like to challenge the outcome of the result, considering the dinners
with the CEO and some of the things she said. What are some of the potential options/remedies
for OPU, local 123?

Now assume instead that the Ontario Labour Relations Board counts the votes and OPU, local 123
wins the certification vote.
Mohan is very excited that the new union, OPU, local 123, now represents the staff at the Brockville
manufacturing plant. Magic Cream management and OPU, local 123, have signed their first collective
agreement, which is now in force, and everything seems to be going well between management and the
unionized employees.
On a Friday before the Canada Day long weekend, just two weeks after the collective agreement came
into effect, Mohan overhears a manager being very aggressive and rude to one of the unionized
employees. Mohan walks over to the manager and tells her to “calm down.” The manager tells Mohan
to “mind his own business and get back to work.” Mohan is really offended by the rude, condescending
tone of the manager, and decides to raise it in the lunchroom with his unionized colleagues. In the
lunchroom, the unionized employees are getting really upset hearing from Mohan about the
mistreatment. As a result, Mohan suggests they all drop what they’re doing, and go on strike outside of
the manufacturing plant. Within minutes, all 40 unionized employees at the Brockville plant are outside
with picket signs and bullhorns. Some of the signs even say “Magic Cream Inc. puts dirty fish heads
into its creams” which the stiking employees know is false, but it will make great headlines and will
teach management a lesson. On the local news that evening, an official representative of the OPU, local
123, says on camera that “the OPU, local 123, supports this strike, is giving strike pay to its members,
providing them food, and thinks this type of strike is a great idea!”

Question 3: Magic Cream Inc. would like to get these workers back to work, while holding the
striking employees and/or OPU, local 123, accountable for their actions. What are some of the
options that Magic Cream Inc. has?

Three years go by, and Magic Cream Inc. is doing very well. It turns out that a worldwide outbreak of
the Turkey Pox virus has helped bolster the success and income of Magic Cream Inc.
In fact, things are going so well that the non-unionized employees at the Barrie manufacturing plant
never decide to unionize, and are receiving regular bonuses and pay increases, above what the
unionized employees in the Brockville plant are making.

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The collective agreement between OPU, local 123, and Magic Cream Inc. has expired. OPU, local 123,
has tried negotiating for higher salaries and benefits for the unionized employees in the Brockville
plant, similar to those non-unionized employees in the Barrie plant. However, Magic Cream Inc.
management is not willing to agree to those terms in the proposed collective agreement. As such, the
negotiations begin to break down, and soon, the negotiations stall.
The Ontario Minister of Labour issues a “no board” report. 18 days go by. Mohan rallies the other 39
unionized employees at the Brockville manfucturing plant, and they start a picket line and strike in
front of the plant.
A further week goes by, and the Brockville plant is effectively shut down (without the strikers working
on the manufacturing line). CBC Newsworld has a “breaking news” story: it turns out the Turkey Pox
virus has now shown up in Ontario, mostly at hospitals. However, it seems to be rapidly spreading to
hospital employees, doctors and nurses, causing them to take time off work and seriously impacting the
entire provincial health system. CBC Newsworld interviews the Chief Medical Officer for the City of
Toronto, who notes that the strike at the Magic Cream Inc. Brockville plant is causing a “concerning
shortage” of Magic Cream to treat the sharp increase of Turkey Pox in Ontario. CBC Newsworld next
interviews a medical researcher from Statistics Canada, who states that she is “not so concerned” about
the supply of Magic Cream, because the Magic Cream Inc. Barrie plant is still operating at full
capacity.
The next day in the Ontario Legislature, all of the political parties vigourously debate what to do about
addressing the Turkey Pox virus in Ontario hospitals. Most of the politicians are saying very negative
things about the OPU, local 123 stike in Brockville. The Minister of Health admits during the debate
that the provincial supply of Magic Cream is running “dangerously low” and 30% of all Ontario
hospital employees are off sick, but that not one person has died as a result of the Turkey Pox. On all of
the radio talk shows in Ontario, citizens are phoning in and asking the Government of Ontario to do
something.
Question 4: What steps can the Government of Ontario take to address the OPU, local 123 strike,
and how could the OPU, local 123 respond or address those steps by the government?
For each of the four issues, please:
1. Discuss the legal arguments of BOTH parties;
2. Assess the legal merits of their arguments (i.e. how strong the arguments are? who might win?);

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