Remedial certification by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (the \u201cBoard\u201d) allows a union to be certified as the bargaining agent for a group of employees where, despite failing to demonstrate that a majority of employees favour unionization, the Board determines that an employer\u2019s misconduct during the certification process may have prevented the \u201ctrue wishes\u201d of employees from being expressed with regards to unionization.<\/p>\n
Changes to remedial certification were introduced by Ontario\u2019s previous provincial government through the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act<\/em>, 2017<\/em> (\u201cBill 148\u201d).\u00a0 Bill 148 made it mandatory<\/strong> for the Board to order remedial certification where an employer\u2019s contravention of the Labour Relations Act, 1995<\/em>, S.O. 1995, c.1, Sched. A (\u201cLRA\u201d) resulted in a situation where \u201cthe true wishes of the employees in the bargaining unit were not likely reflected in a representation vote\u201d or where such contravention resulted in the union failing to obtain signed union cards from at least 40% of employees.<\/p>\n The Making Ontario Open for Business Act<\/em>, 2018<\/em> (\u201cBill 47\u201d), introduced by the current provincial government, reversed many of the changes from Bill 148 and effectively returned remedial certification to its prior status as a \u201cremedy of last resort\u201d in cases of employer misconduct. While the Board retains the ability to order an initial or additional representation vote and to do anything to ensure that a representation vote represents the true wishes of employees in the bargaining unit, remedial certification may now only be ordered \u201cif no other remedy would be sufficient\u201d to address the employer\u2019s misconduct.<\/p>\n Despite these changes, employers operating both in and outside of the construction industry must remain wary of the ways in which their conduct may trigger the remedial certification provisions of the LRA and should seek assistance from legal counsel in order to effectively navigate union organizing campaigns and certification applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remedial certification by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (the \u201cBoard\u201d) allows a union to be certified as the bargaining agent for a group of employees where, despite failing to demonstrate that a majority of employees favour unionization, the Board determines that an employer\u2019s misconduct during the certification process may have prevented the \u201ctrue wishes\u201d of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14341,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[539],"insight-format":[416],"class_list":["post-5281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-construction-and-infrastructure-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n