Rights Arbitration Assignment Summer $2024$

Due: June $22,2024$ Instructor: Dr$.$ Ted Mock

$1.$ Natural Resource Group $($NRG$)$ is in the business of the transmission and delivery of natural gas to end$-$consumers throughout various parts of Ontario. NRG is a provincially$-$regulated company as all of its facilities operate solely within Ontario. In addition to its pipelines and gas transmission facilities, it also operates offices in Kitchener and Kingston, Ontario where all of the administrative functions associated with its operations are handled.

$2.$ Most of the employees in these offices are customer service representatives $($CSRs$).$ The CSRs take telephone calls from residential customers, primarily with respect to customers$$ billing enquiries or complaints. CSRs spend more than $80\%$ of their working day either on the telephone or accessing information on their desktop computers. In addition to accessing NRG$$s customer billing system, CSRs have access to the internet, e$-$mail and certain other work$-$related applications. NRG employs approximately $900$ CSRs throughout its operations in Ontario.

$3.$ When calls come in to the billing centres, they are placed in a queue. CSRs take calls in priority sequence, but have the option of placing their telephones on $$busy$$ mode for short periods when they need to use the washroom and when they are on coffee or lunch breaks. Otherwise, CSRs are expected to respond to between twelve $(12)$ and fifteen $(15)$ calls per hour or ninety $(90)$ to one hundred and ten $(110)$ calls during each shift, based on an average of four $(4)$ to five $(5)$ minutes per call. Although the expected call volumes are described as $$targets$,$ these averages are used to assess CSR performance on annual evaluations. To date, no CSR has been discharged by NRG due to failure to meet call volume targets. However, poor performance, as reflected in annual evaluations, has been the basis for the refusal of promotions on occasion.

$4.$ The CSRs are within a bargaining unit of employees represented by the Federation of Office and Technical Employees of Canada $($FOTEC$),$ Local $100.$ NRG has had a bargaining relationship with FOTEC since the union was certified in $2002.$

$5.$ NRG accepts that some personal e$-$mail and internet usage will occur at the workplace, but seeks to minimize this type of use, out of a concern that employees will abuse the privilege of using the company$$s computers or engage in time$-$wasting activities. In September $2014,$ the company learned that a number of CSRs in the Kitchener office had been exchanging inappropriate e$-$mails with adult content. Most of the material was $$dirty jokes$,$ but certain extremely offensive pornographic material was also located on NRG$$s server. Eventually this material was traced to one CSR$,$ who had also disseminated it to other employees and people outside the company. The employee was terminated. FOTEC grieved, and was successful in having the company reinstate the employee. As part of the trade$-$off for that reinstatement, FOTEC agreed to the implementation of a new $$Internet & E$-$mail Usage Policy$($the $$Policy$).$

$6.$ In relevant part, the Policy provides:

The E$-$mail and Internet systems are provided for activity related to the Company$$s business. Accordingly, uses must be consistent with the business purposes of the Internet as it relates to the Company and its divisions. Assuming that staff continue their professional approach to Internet$/$E$-$mail use, occasional personal use of the Internet$/$E$-$mail is permitted provided that it does not hinder the work of the user or others. Employees should be aware that the Company may monitor any E$-$mail and Internet usage to ensure compliance with this policy and applicable laws. Accordingly, communications via Internet and E$-$mail should not be regarded as confidential.

NRG will have $$zero tolerance$$ for any employees found to be using the Company$$s E$-$mail and Internet systems for improper purposes. Such violations will be subject to discipline up to and including discharge.

$...$

Unacceptable Uses of the Internet

$...$

Uses that:

o interfere with job performance of the user or other employees;

o cause congestion of the network; $...$

$$ The visiting of any Internet site which is incompatible with the Company$$s values and community standards. Any questions by staff on this should be directed to Human Resources.

$6.$ Ken Rogers is a CSR in the Kitchener office. He has worked for NRG $($or its predecessors$)$ since $2000.$ Ken was involved in the organizing activity which eventually resulted in FOTEC being certified. He was on the negotiating committee for the first collective agreement, and was an active union steward until early in $2022.$ It was Ken who represented the employee terminated for misuse of the computer system, and Ken agreed to the Policy $($with the support of FOTEC$$s local president$)$ in exchange for the employee$$s reinstatement.

$7.$ Ken is supervised by Elaine Ness. Ness has had a sometimes chal