What Labour Board Decisions Say
The Freeze Provision Explained
Your right to change unions without fear of losing any of your collective agreement terms and conditions are protected through two separate pieces of legislation, the Ontario Labour Relations Act and the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act.
Your wages, benefits, pension, seniority, vacation, holidays, scheduling, layoff protection, bumping rights, job posting procedures—and every other term and condition of employment—all continue to operate as normal and cannot be changed when you decide to change unions. They are frozen in place until a new agreement is negotiated and ratified.
Section 86(1) of the Ontario Labour Relations Act has been tested by the Ontario Labour Relations Board, independent arbitrators, and now the Supreme Court of Canada. The law on this matter is clear: your terms and conditions of employment cannot be changed during the transition from one union to another.
If someone tells you something different, they are not telling you the truth.
Ontario Labour Relations Act
86. (1) Where notice has been given under section 16 or section 59 and no collective agreement is in operation, no employer shall, except with the consent of the trade union, alter the rates of wages or any other term or condition of employment or any right, privilege or duty, of the employer, the trade union or the employees, and no trade union shall, except with the consent of the employer, alter any term or condition of employment or any right, privilege or duty of the employer, the trade union or the employees,
Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act
13. Despite subsection 86 (1) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995, if notice has been given under section 16 or 59 of that Act by or to a trade union that is the bargaining agent for a bargaining unit of hospital employees to which this Act applies to or by the employer of such employees and no collective agreement is in operation, no such employer shall, except with the consent of the trade union, alter the rates of wages or any other term or condition of employment or any right, privilege or duty of the employer, the trade union or the employees, and no such trade union shall, except with the consent of the employer, alter any term or condition of employment or any right, privilege or duty of the employer, the trade union or the employees, until the right of the trade union to represent the employees has been terminated. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.14, s. 13; 1997, c. 21, Sched. A, s. 4 (13).
