The bargaining agent presented a policy grievance following the issuance of a memo by Environment Canada to its compensation advisors – the memo enunciated the employer’s interpretation of clause 25.13(d)(ii) of the Technical Services collective agreement, which is about the calculation of premium pay when employees working variable or irregular hours work on a designated paid holiday (DPH) – according to the employer, employees should be paid the premium rate (time and one half) only for hours worked in excess of the “normal daily hours,” deemed to be 7.5 hours by virtue of clause 25.13(d)(i) – the bargaining agent claimed that employees should be remunerated at the premium rate for all hours worked on the DPH and relied on previous decisions that, according to the bargaining agent, had determined this issue – the employer acknowledged that it was relitigating prior adjudication decisions, which it felt had been decided incorrectly – the adjudicator agreed with the bargaining agent’s interpretation of the collective agreement and held that “regular scheduled hours” meant all hours scheduled on a DPH – hence, premium pay applied to all those hours, not only to the portion that exceeded the normal daily hours (7.5 hours) as defined in the collective agreement – the adjudicator referred to the preamble of the Public Service Labour Relations Act and stated that it was important to foster a positive labour relations climate, notably by not reversing previous decisions on the same matter.

Grievance allowed.