The MFL has presented a brief to a Committee of the Manitoba Legislature that requires the Manitoba Labour Board to set regulations that impose a timeline on how long it takes for a decision to be released following a Board hearing in matters referred to it:

“We support the provisions contained in Bill 54 and we believe that when fully implemented, all parties that make up the labour relations environment will benefit.

As you know, the bill will require the Manitoba Labour Board to draft and implement regulations to establish time lines for decisions brought before it by unions and management representatives.  Such time lines will go a long way to remedying an ongoing concern shared by most labour relations practitioners in Manitoba that sometimes, there are unacceptably long delays between labour Board hearings and the release of decisions.

In most matters, timely decisions are very important to both employer and worker representatives – unresolved issues can have a very unsettling affect on people’s lives and workplace harmony.

It is widely recognized in the labour relations community that time is of the essence in dealing with disputes in a labour relations context; that the timely commencement and resolution of outstanding issues is an important component in maintaining amicable labour relations in Manitoba.

It is self-evident that delays have the opposite effect and measures that can be put in place to reduce them, as much as possible, are reasonable.

There are occasions and circumstances when it is difficult to meet timelines.  In those instances, the trade union movement has long promoted the use of interim decisions, to be followed at a later date by written reasons for decision, rather than to allow lengthy periods to write a decision to delay justice.

This issue is not limited to Manitoba – other jurisdictions have grappled with it, using a variety of mechanisms.

Two that come to mind are the Provinces of British Columbia and Ontario.

In British Columbia, legislators chose to include a single sentence remedy in that province’s Labour Relations Act:

Delay by arbitration board
9.1  If a difference has been submitted to arbitration and a party to the arbitration complains to the minister that the arbitration board has failed to render a decision in a reasonable time, the minister may, after consulting the parties and the arbitration board, issue an order the minister considers necessary to ensure a decision will be rendered without further undue delay.

Ontario has implemented a different strategy.  There, the Board relies heavily on the use of mediators between the filing of an application or a complaint to bring the parties to a settlement on their own, without a formal hearing.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board tracks this process and the most recent year of data for successfully settled cases through mediation (2010-2011) shows how it works for them.

84.8%    Based on completed case activity in certification / unfair labour practices / grievances, and other cases.

83.5 % – on Employment Standards case appeals

95.7% – on Occupational Health and Safety Act appeals

We raise these examples, not to endorse them, but to illustrate that delayed decisions are not limited to Manitoba and a number of strategies have been developed to address them.

We recognize that the Manitoba Labour Board is reviewing its policies and has been working towards making itself more modern and ensuring it is meeting the needs of its stakeholders.

Employer and Labour groups both would benefit from clear deadlines for decisions and being actively engaged in changes to the regulations to meet the community’s needs.

We congratulate the government for moving to address this issue here and I’m optimistic that the provisions of Bill 54 will translate into effective legislation and regulations.”