Labour Relations Board: Local 1611

Human Rights Tribunal Dept: I am counsel for the Construction and Specialized Workers Union, Local 1611, in the SELI case. Ian Mulgrew writes that the Labour Relations Board "had the good sense" not to find discrimination during the Canada Line construction and that this is when the union amended its complaint and took it to the Human Rights Tribunal, according to Vancouver Sun. After a lengthy hearing, most of which was devoted to hearing witnesses called by SELI, the tribunal found that the Latin American workers were paid about 60 per cent of what was paid the European workers; in addition, the European workers were given superior benefits and accommodation, despite the fact that they performed the same work and had equivalent experience and expertise and re: Appeal court ponders unintended consequences, Ian Mulgrew, Aug. 12 In fact, the union amended its complaint to the tribunal shortly after workers from Europe were brought onto the project, which was already underway, and well before the LRB ruling. That amendment was made in view of the fact that the European workers were paid almost twice as much, and received better housing and benefits, than the Latin American workers who were already on the project and who were performing the same work. The LRB expressly declined to rule on that issue, noting that it was already and properly before the tribunal. Thus, it is not the case that the LRB had dismissed this aspect of the complaint, or that the complaint was amended in response to the LRB, or that the union went to the tribunal after its complaint had been dismissed by the LRB. Rather, the LRB determined that the complaint should properly be decided by the tribunal. As reported in the news.
@t ian mulgrew, vancouver sun