The Alberta Labour Relations Board has decided that workers in Fort McMurray, Alta., who banded together to try to pressure their employer for higher pay and more time off, must stop collectively refusing voluntary overtime because they are engaging in an illegal strike.
AlumaSafway Inc. filed an application with the Alberta Labour Relations Board last week, saying some employees violated the provincial Labour Relations Code.
An anonymous letter was circulated to scaffolders working for the company, urging them to refuse voluntary overtime in order to get better pay and working conditions. Workers refused overtime on Aug. 22, marking a "significant decline from normal circumstances," the labour board's decision says.
The board found the action constituted an illegal strike that went against the collective bargaining agreement.
Eric Adams, a University of Alberta law professor with a focus on labour and employment law, said the letter and the eventual refusal of overtime turned what is supposed to be an individual's decision to refuse overtime into a collective action.
"That can be a fine line," Adams said.
"Collective workplace action can and should happen, but only in very constrained circumstances when collective bargaining is ongoing, when a collective agreement has ended and certain conditions have been met."
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