Paid hours and hours worked do not refer to the same reality

The union asked the employer to include meal hours and statutory holidays in his accounting for purposes of calculating the probation period, as the collective agreement called for a probation period of 720 hours worked. According to the arbitrator, the concept of hours worked as stated in the collective agreement left no room for interpretation, considering the obvious objective underscoring the employer’s subjecting a new employee to a probation period, the traditional meaning of the phrase “hours worked” as provided by dictionaries, doctrine and case law, and the absence of specific provisions in the collective agreement which would allow one to circumvent the traditional meaning of this phrase. As meal periods and statutory holidays are not periods during which an employee must perform his/her duties or actually work, it is clear that, even if the latter is paid during such periods, the latter cannot be accounted for as hours worked. The grievance was rejected.

Unifor v. Moulage sous pression AMT, DTE 2016T-396, 2016 QCTA 206, Jean Gauvin Esq.