Grievance Case Summary - G-401

The Grievor was chosen to be a member of the G8 Summit Tactical Mountain Bicycle Unit. Before the first training session in April 2002, he received joining instructions which stated that no overtime would be paid for "training deployment exercises." The Grievor was then chosen to assist in preparing a training plan for the Tactical Mountain Bicycle Unit and he attended two further sessions for this purpose. At the end of the first of these sessions, he was told again that overtime will not be paid. The Grievor submitted three overtime claims for time worked on regular time off during the three periods. In a letter dated July 16, 2002 all three claims were rejected on the basis that the Grievor was notified in advance that overtime would not be paid. The Grievor presented a Level I grievance. In reply, the Respondent argued that the Grievor had volunteered to be a member of the G8 Summit Tactical Mountain Bicycle Unit; that members were selected on their availability to attend without claiming overtime; and that the Grievor had prior notification that overtime would not be covered. The Level I Adjudicator denied the grievance on the basis that the grievance was out of time.

The Committee found that the Level I decision on timeliness violated the duty to act fairly because the parties did not have a chance to be heard on the issue. Nevertheless, the Committee found that on the basis of the record, it would conclude that the Grievor did not respect the statutory time limitation. It found that the time limit started to run when the Grievor was first told overtime would not be paid; the later rejection of overtime claim merely amounted to the implementation of the decision already communicated to him. However, the Committee also recommended that the Commissioner extend the time limit under section 47.4 of the RCMP Act because the Grievor had not had the opportunity to be heard on the timeliness issue and a significant amount of time had passed.

On the merits, the Committee found that special rules adopted for the volunteer G8 Summit Security Duty allowed for overtime claims in certain circumstances. In addition, AMII.4.I.3.a.2 may not prevent payment of overtime because the activities of the Grievor in this case could be viewed as a course that is "in service or RCMP required training that is on an RTOs". Nevertheless, the Committee found that the Grievor had been told overtime would not be paid, and that he made an informed decision to participate on this basis.

The Committee recommended that the Commissioner of the RCMP extend the time for presenting the grievance under section 47.4 of the Act and that the grievance be denied.

The Commissioner has rendered a decision in this matter, as summarized by his office:

After reviewing the matter in its entirety (both the timeliness issue and the merits of the grievance), it appeared to the Commissioner that the same facts relied upon by the Committee to recommend denying the grievance on the merits, also led to the conclusion that the grievance was not presented within the time limitation. Furthermore, the Commissioner was not inclined to extend the time limit for the presentation of the grievance, as recommended by the Committee. On the other hand, given the passage of time in this matter, the Commissioner did not believe it would be appropriate to send the file back to Level I for a redetermination of the timeliness issue. Considering the above, the Commissioner concluded that what was preferable and fair in the circumstances was for him to decide the grievance on its merits.

The Commissioner agreed with the Committee's findings and recommendations on the merits and denied the grievance.