Collective Bargaining at the Big Blue Inn

Assignment 2
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Assignment 2
Scenario 1
1 The bargaining unit is appropriate. The certification law in Ontario requires a union to demonstrate that at least 40 percent of the employees in the bargaining unit are union members in order to qualify for a certification vote. However, the bargaining unit should not include housekeeping since they are independent contractors. It should only include the kitchen, restaurant/bar, and housekeeping staff. By law, independent contractors are not regarded as employees, so housekeeping cannot apply to unionize. Big Blue Inn directly employs both kitchen and restaurant/bar employees and can therefore unionize. Moreover, the maintenance staff can also be considered employees of Big Blue Inn even if the outside company, B&S Maintenance Services, contracts them. In some cases, like in the scenario, the employer's identity is not obvious because control over employees is split between multiple businesses. However, in determining the true employer, labor boards concentrate on the business that exercises control and command over the employees while conducting their duties (Doorey, 2020). In the scenario, B&S Maintenance Services is a temporary employment supplier. Although it hired the maintenance staff at Big Blue Inn, the latter is the true employer. Big Blue Inn is the true employer because it controls the temporary employees at B&S Maintenance Services. For instance, one of Big Blue Inn's assistant general managers supervises the four maintenance workers, manages their workload, and controls their working hours. Furthermore, the collective bargaining legislation allows labor boards to declare the two businesses as related employers for collective bargaining purposes. Big Blue Inn and B&S Maintenance Services are carrying on associated businesses, which are also implemented under a common direction. For these reasons, an application consisting only of kitchen, restaurant/bar, and maintenance staff (excluding housekeeping) is the appropriate bargaining unit.
2 The application demonstrates sufficient support for both certification and conducting a certification vote. In all categories, the union did demonstrate that it had acquired at least 40 percent to be certified. Labor boards use the denominator in the Golden Fraction (or the total number of employees eligible to participate in the unionization decision or the voting constituency) to determine which employees are entitled to participate in the unionization. Excluding housekeeping staff, grouping jobs filed by the Canadian Hotel Employee Union (CHEU) in seeking certification is appropriate. The union looks to be in good shape in a model that requires the union to demonstrate at least 40 percent or more support to be certified (Doorey, 2020). For instance, using the determined bargaining unit, the total signed cards in support of the application are 12 out of the 20 employees eligible to participate in the decision. This translates to more than 40 percent of the total number of employees eligible for unionization. The percentage of employees who want the union to represent them in collective bargaining has reached the req...