DISTRIBUTION OF OVERTIME HOURS: A RESPONSE DEADLINE OF 5 MINUTES IS SUFFICIENT

The union alleged that the employer failed to offer an employee overtime hours to be done on a Saturday. According to the evidence, the foreman telephoned the employee and, since there was no answer, left her a voice message offering her overtime hours and asking her to call back within 5 minutes. Having had no response from the employee within the stated period, the foreman proceeded to contact the next employee on the seniority list. The arbitrator rejected the grievance, stating that the 5-minute response time was not unreasonable under the circumstances, since the foreman had to gather a team of several employees for the following day. The number of employees eligible for overtime hours, the degree of urgency and the nature of the work must all be examined when determining whether a response time is reasonable. Syndicat des cols bleus regroupés de Montréal, Local 301 (CUPE) and Montreal (Ville de) (union grievance) , DTE 2007T-109 (A.T.) Jean-Pierre Tremblay, Attorney