An employer is facing a resurrected Ontario Labour Relations Board safety-reprisal hearing after the case was dismissed when the employee failed to attend the hearing.
The OLRB dismissed the complaint as abandoned after the employee failed to attend the hearing, which was scheduled to start at 9:30 am. The OLRB, as is its practice, waited 30 minutes before it dismissed the application. The employer's representatives were in attendance.
The next day, the employee sent a letter to the OLRB stating that he mistakenly arrived for the hearing at 11:30 am believing that it would start at noon. He said that he had assumed the noon start time because the previous mediation in the case had started at that time.
The OLRB stated that while it had sympathy for the employer, the employee had demonstrated an effort to participate in the hearing. He had traveled from Ottawa to Toronto only to find out that he was incorrect about the starting time, and had immediately notified the OLRB about the error and sought to have the complaint re-listed. The OLRB agreed to re-list the complaint for hearing, and overturned the dismissal.
Boville v Alltrade Industrial Contractors Inc, 2014 CanLII 50099 (ON LRB)
For more information, visit our Occupational Health & Safety Law blog at www.occupationalhealthandsafetylaw.com
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