In Securiguard Services Limited, BCLRB No. B261/2000, the Employer complained under section 7(1) that IWA organizers attempted to persuade an employee to join the Union during working hours at its place of employment. It argued that the only time non-employee organizers are permitted on site without an employer’s consent is if the employees reside on site and the Board directs access. The Panel found that the consent referred to in section 7(1) relates not to access in the sense of entry, but consent to persuasive activity at the defined location. Contact was made on a public sidewalk where the employee was posted as a security guard. If the place of contact is a place of employment, union organizers may nonetheless have an independent right to be there if they are on public property. The Union argued that the employee was not contacted at a place of employment. The Panel agreed that the sidewalk was not an area exclusively reserved for the Employer’s employees and that the Employer had no right to control access to the sidewalk. However, “the employer’s place of employment” refers to the workplace where the Employer employs employees. The sidewalk where the security guard was on patrol was therefore a place at which an employee works. Because the employee was on duty at the time of the contact, there was an attempt to persuade at a place of employment during working hours, in contravention of section 7(1). The employer’s application was granted (click here for full text of decision).
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