Labour board rejects WFN's late appeal of decision involving former care home employees

Photo: Contributed

Former Pine Acres employees and WFN members held a small rally and petition drive in May to seek more details on the closure of the facility.

The Westbank First Nation will not get a chance to appeal a labour board decision on the severance owed to former employees of the now-closed Pine Acres care home because they didn’t file the paperwork in time.

The First Nation announced in May it was appealing a labour board decision that ruled former unionized employees were owed additional severance that the employer was withholding.

The original decision is not public, so details of the dispute are murky, but a former Pine Acres employee told Castanet WFN paid out union members under the Employment Standards Act, not their collective agreement, which the arbitrator ruled against.

The WFN described it somewhat differently at the time, when it announced it would be disputing the “fairness” of the decision, which stated “that the more lucrative ‘layoff’ provision” of the collective agreement applied.

Either way, the appeal isn’t going anywhere.

The arbitration award for the union was issued on March 2, 2022. The Labour Code requires appeals to be filed within 15 days, and WFN did not submit their application until April 22, 2022.

The application WFN submitted was also incomplete and initially rejected by the registrar, and finally, a full package was submitted on May 5, 2022.

WFN tried to argue its application should be accepted outside the 15-day window because of “certain internal governance procedural requirements concerning decision making.”

“These requirements can include, among other things, meetings, discussion, and voting. WFN chief and council are required to act in the best interests of WFN members at all times when acting in their elected capacities,” the First Nation argued.

The B.C. General Employees Union, which represents the former employees, said in response WFN’s systems are not all that unique.

“Many, if not most, employers have board processes and internal procedures, as well as responsibilities to their constituents and members,” the union argued, adding WFN was being represented by a “prominent Vancouver law firm” and is “is obviously an employer with sophisticated business practices and procedures.”

WFN ultimately did not respond to the union’s submissions on the timeliness of the application, and on May 26, the labour board tossed the appeal.

“I agree with the union that the employer has provided no compelling reason to grant relief from the 15-day requirement,” said labour board associate chair Brett Matthews in his decision.

When the WFN announced its appeal, it was unwilling to explain how much severance it was withholding from former employees pending the planned appeal. The band cited $8 million in required upgrades and staffing shortages as the reason it closed the care home in January.

WFN Chief Christopher Derickson abruptly resigned on Friday, blaming corruption in the band.