The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
LABOUR RELATIONS: Board decision favours union
Vale is still not commenting on the decision Friday by the Ontario Labour Relations Board to direct the matter of eight discharged employees to just cause arbitration.
Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson said Monday at 4 p.m. she had nothing to add to a statement issued Saturday at The Sudbury Star’s request.
Robson said then that Vale is continuing to “review and assess the decision of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. “The OLRB has made no ruling on the correctness or legitimacy of the discharges,” said Robson.
The purpose of the hearings into United Steelworkers unfair bargaining complaint against Vale was not to determine if the firing of eight Steelworkers during their year-long strike against the mining company were justified.
The only matter before the board was whether the firings should be sent to a third-party arbitrator to determine if they were fair.
Saturday, Robson said “decisions to terminate are never made lightly by our company and weren’t in these cases. Vale will always act properly to protect its employees against acts of intimidation and violence.
“We stand by our actions.”
Vale has said it has the right to dismiss employees for not adhering to the company’s code of conduct, whether they are on the job or on strike.
Monday, Robson would only say the Vale team continues to review and assess the decision.
Vale can either agree to arbitration and proceed to set dates with USW or launch a judicial review of the board’s decision.
Vale launched a judicial review last fall when the labour board ruled on how evidence should be presented at hearing dates into the complaint.
Vale asked the divisional court of the Superior Court of Justice to scrap eight days of hearings that had been held into the complaint filed Jan. 13, 2009, and start the process all over again.
That was because the board was attempting to move the complaint forward by only allowing will-say statements – essentially written statements of testimony -rather than testimony by witnesses being called in person by both parties.
When the board made the ruling about will-say statements, one Vale employee, pro-t ection services supervisor Mike Neault, had been testifying for three days and Vale said it intended to call several more witnesses.
Vale tried to have the hearings halted with its application for judicial rule, but the board hear the complaint while the court was reviewing that application.
Division court rejected the application for judicial review Oct. 7, 2011.
Vale has not said if it will seek a judicial review of this decision, but speculation is mounting that it will do so given the length of time it is taking for the company to comment on Friday’s decision.
USW lawyer Brian Shell said Friday that if Vale does seek judicial review, USW will ask the board to commence arbitrations for the fired eight employees.