Why a management rights clause couldn't justify pulling five jobs from the bargaining unit

A British Columbia city that tried to remove five jobs from its bargaining unit during contract talks has lost its bid to overturn the ruling against it. The province's Labour Relations Board declined to reconsider a decision that the city breached the statutory freeze when it did so while bargaining a renewal agreement.

In a decision dated May 15, 2026, a three-member panel chaired by Jennifer Glougie, with vice-chairs Jonathan Hanvelt and Andrew Nathan, dismissed the City of Powell River's bid to reconsider a loss to the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 798. The earlier ruling found the city breached the statutory freeze in section 45(2) of the Labour Relations Code by removing five positions from the unit during renewal bargaining.

How a mid-bargaining move reached the board

The facts were not in dispute. After the union gave notice to bargain, and while the parties were negotiating a renewal agreement, the city told the union it would move five positions, and the people in them, out of the bargaining unit. The city said the step sat within its residual management authority and the collective agreement, pointing to clause 2.01 on management rights and clause 1.01 on employees.

The union saw it differently. It said pulling the jobs mid-bargaining stripped those members of their right to be represented and risked destabilizing the talks. An arbitrator, it argued, would only...

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