- May 26, 2021
- Certifications/Decertifications
IATSE, Local 295 applied to be certified as the bargaining agent for a unit of production employees of the Globe Theatre Society. The Employer challenged the bargaining unit description proposed by the Union, arguing that the five production heads ought not to be included in the bargaining unit because they exercised managerial authority to hire casual employees. The Board found that although production heads exercised that managerial authority, a number of factors weighed in favour of including them in the bargaining unit. First, the hiring power of production heads was limited to hiring casual employees for intermittent periods, from among an established pool of casual employees. Second, production heads had very little authority to determine the terms and conditions of employment they offered to the casual employees they hired. Third, the hiring duties of productions heads were only additional responsibilities to their primary duties, which were those of a skilled production craft employee. Fourth, excluding production heads from the bargaining unit would weaken and divide the craft bargaining unit by creating a disproportionate number of excluded positions from a small bargaining unit, and would be contrary to the Board’s policy of granting managerial exceptions that are as narrow as possible.
The Employer also disputed the exclusion of six employees’ ballots from the representation vote that the Union asserted were ineligible because they did not work in the production department at the relevant time, and both parties made submissions with respect to whether there were other employees who were improperly treated as ineligible to vote based on their employment history in the production department. The Board found that employees who were eligible to vote were those who had worked in the production department for a minimum of twenty-five hours during both the show that the Employer was producing at the time of the Union’s application, and the preceding show.