2010 ABQB 344 (CanLII)
Court of Queen's Bench — Alberta
collective bargaining — region-wide functional bargaining units — employees — region-wide functional bargaining unit — successorship
cited by 1 case
On judicial review, the Court upheld the decision of the Alberta Labour Relations Board that rejected a constitutional challenge to legislation, which dealt with the impact on collective bargaining rights of a government decision to amalgamate 9 regional health authorities into a province-wide health region. The legislation provided for 4 functional bargaining units, as well as a mechanism for the Board to determine the union that would have bargaining rights and the collective agreement that would be operative initially. It also required the parties to meet and bargain in good faith on amendments to that collective agreement. The Board held that the impugned provisions did not substantially interfere with the process of collective bargaining, even though some unions would cease to represent employees and some collective agreements would cease to have effect. The Court agreed and noted that every subject of collective bargaining that could have been pursued by the applicant unions when there were multiple regional health authorities can be pursued in the context of a single province-wide bargaining unit.