The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Wal-mart has to pay compensation to workers who lost their jobs when Wal-mart closed a unionised store in Jonquière, Quebec, but the store stays closed.
Some of you may remember, a decade ago, that a union was certified to represent the workers at the Jonquière Wal-mart. This was the first time ever that a Wal-mart was unionised. They management and the union negotiated over a first contract for some time, but then Wal-mart announced it was closing the store for “business reasons.”
After a decade of litigation, including a previous trip to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court has now held (5-2) that Wal-mart’s closing of the store violated Quebec’s labour laws, which prohibit an employer from changing working conditions while a collective agreement is being negotiated. Closing a store and dismissing the workers is a change in working conditions that has to be justified as a normal business practice, not tied to the unionisation. The arbitrator in this case was not satisified that it was a normal business practice, and therefore ruled that the workers were entitled to financial compensation for the loss of their jobs. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling.
The remedy is that each of the workers who was fired appears to be entitled to financial compensation, to be determined by an arbitrator. However, Wal-mart is victorious overall: the store stays closed.
Globe and Mail article:
Court rules Wal-Mart violated labour laws in Quebec union case
Link to the SCC decision: United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 503 v. Wal‑Mart Canada Corp.
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