How much control turns a franchisor into its franchisees' employer? B.C.'s top court weighs in
A grocery franchisor's grip on its independent store operators can be enough, on its own, to tie them together as a single employer for bargaining, even when those operators hold no control over one another. A provincial appeal court has now let that finding stand.
In reasons released July 24, 2026, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, in a judgment written by Madam Justice Fisher, dismissed appeals brought by Sobeys Capital Incorporated and four FreshCo franchisees. The ruling leaves in place a Labour Relations Board declaration that the grocery chain and its franchisees are a common employer for the purposes of the province's labour code.
Sobeys owns and operates Safeway grocery stores in British Columbia and franchises discount outlets under the FreshCo and Chalo! banners. In 2019, it signed franchise agreements with operators to run FreshCo stores in the province. That same year, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 1518 asked the Labour Relations Board to declare Sobeys and the franchisees a single employer under section 38 of the Labour Relations Code.
The timing mattered. Before any FreshCo store had opened, Sobeys and the union had settled a collective agreement for the banner through arbitration in December 2018. The union argued a common employer declaration would preserve that existing...
KUALA TERENGGANU: Three Rahmah Sales Programme (PJRM) operators in Terengganu have been suspended after being found guilty of violating operational guidelines, including submitting false subsidy c...