Sask. bingo hall appeals to court in bid to decertify workers' union

A Court of King’s Bench judge has paused a labour board order to destroy the unopened ballots from a vote to decertify a recently-formed union at a Saskatoon bingo hall.

The order to toss the ballots came from a December 2023 labour board decision that found the management at City Centre Bingo had “completely and overtly disregarded” its obligations when negotiating with a union that formed just prior to the pandemic.

According to labour board vice-chair Barbara Mysko, employees at the Saskatoon bingo hall unionized with SEIU-West in December 2019 over concerns the company “was showing favoritism to certain employees.”

Over the next several years, amid a pandemic shutdown and staffing churn, labour board vice-chair Mysko said the company refused to provide representatives from SEIU with details about job duties and classifications, and even employee contact information.

The labour board found managers at City Centre Bingo repeatedly delayed bargaining and hurt the union’s credibility by unilaterally implementing pay increases during an active contract negotiation, violating terms of the Employment Act.

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In the midst of these fraught negotiations over the union’s first contract, one staff member applied to decertify the union because “nothing was happening.”

Following the labour board’s finding that City Centre Bingo had committed an unfair labour practice, Mysko ordered the union to destroy the sealed ballots from that decertification vote.

Now, City Centre Bingo is appealing the decision at the Court of King’s Bench.

Last month, it called on King’s Bench Judge Richard Elson for an order to continue preserving the unopened ballots while the two parties waited for the results of the judicial review.

“If the unopened ballots are destroyed, it will be impossible for anyone, including the [labour] board, to ascertain the level of support at the relevant time. This would present a serious problem if the employer’s application succeeds in all respects and eventually results in the board allowing [the decertification] application,” Elson wrote in his Feb. 22 decision.

“There is no harm or inconvenience in preserving the unopened ballots pending the possibility they may have to be counted. Even if the Union is correct in its observation that this possibility is remote.”