Arbitration between School District #28 (Quesnel) and United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local 2545 Arbitrator: John Kinzie Date of Award: June 9, 2000
An arbitrator has upheld the right of a school district to consider residency requirements as part of the requirements a laid off support staff employee must have in order to bump into a position.
The school district has in existence two distinct types of bus routes. One type of route is referred to as a garage based route because it starts and ends at the school district’s bus garage in Quesnel. The second type of route is referred to as home based routes because they start and end at the driver’s home.
When the buses are not in use on home based routes, they are stored at the drivers’ homes. The issue giving rise to the grievance was the refusal by the employer to permit a senior driver to bump into a home based route when his garage based route was eliminated within the city of Quesnel.
Arbitrator Kinzie agreed with the school district and decided that the employer’s refusal to allow the senior driver to bump into a home based route did not entail a violation of his bumping rights under the terms of the collective agreement. He did not satisfy the residency requirement for the home based route. The residency requirement was valid and relevant in light of the provisions of the collective agreement.
The arbitrator also concluded that a senior employee must be able to meet all the requirements of the job he is asserting a right to bump into. These requirements encompass matters such as ability and formal qualification but also include in appropriate cases residency requirements where they are relevant to the performance of the work. The grievance was dismissed.