Labour Board declines to order end to Kelowna Cab dispatcher lockout

Photo: Castanet Staff

There appears to be no end in sight to a labour dispute between Kelowna Cabs and its small team of dispatch staff.

Five active unionized dispatchers with the taxi company have been locked out since Feb. 26, prompting their union to take the matter to the B.C. Labour Relations Board.

The Board, in reasons released Wednesday, declined to declare the lockout illegal but did note that the company broke the Labour Code when a manager told a dispatcher he would have to leave the union if he wanted to keep his job.

The LRB ruling sheds some light on negotiations, as both sides previously have been telling different stories to the media.

On Feb. 23, the last meeting between the two parties, Kelowna Cabs presented the union with a proposed deal that included a clause that stated “nothing in this collective agreement will preclude the employer from utilizing technology and/or external centres to assist with dispatch and call taking.”

The union countered with a proposal that would limit the use of a call centre to only times when there were calls waiting in a queue and that the employer would disclose how many calls were sent to the call centre. The call centre would also stop being used in May 2022 when parties went back to the bargaining table.

After the union’s proposal was rejected, a lockout notice was issued by the company.

On the day the lockout notice went into effect, a Kelowna Cabs shareholder told an employee if he didn’t “give up” the union, he would never work at the company again, something the board ruled violated the Labour Code. The board, however, declined to order remedial action.

The Labour Board also rejected the union’s allegations that the company was not bargaining in good faith.

“I am satisfied the employer identified concessions it wished to extract from the union and that it was willing to resort to a lockout to achieve. I find that does not evidence a lack of intention to achieve a collective agreement. Rather, it constitutes hard bargaining,” said Labour Board vice-chair Brett Matthews.

The union responded to the decision Thursday by calling on Kelowna Cabs to end the lockout.

“They can end this lockout today, let our members go back to work immediately, and come back to the bargaining table so we can get a deal done,” said Christy Slusarenko, Vice-President of MoveUP.

Last year the BC Labour Relations Board overturned eight layoff notices issued to Kelowna Cab’s dispatchers after determining the company “failed to bargain in good faith.” The company at that time was trying to move to an app-based dispatch system.