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In a ruling that could have wide implications, an arbitrator has ordered an employer to pay the Ontario government's new health care premium on behalf of its employees under provisions of a dormant clause in the collective agreement.

Arbitrator Anne Barrett rejected an argument by the employer, Lapointe Fisher Nursing Home, that the so-called premium "was really a tax and not the long ago discontinued OHIP premium referred to in the collective agreement."

A previous Liberal government eliminated the Ontario Health Insurance Plan premiums 15 years ago, but many unions held on to their contract language compelling employers to pay the premium -- "in case it comes back," Ms. Barrett wrote in her Oct. 6 decision. It came back, in a different form, earlier this year, creating immediate conflict between unions and employers over whether the old contract language could be reapplied.

On July 1, employers started deducting the premium, which could cost Ontario's most highly-paid employees $900 a year. Ms. Barrett's ruling, on behalf of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, was hailed by the union's lawyers as a landmark decision.

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Globe&Mail

[ 10 October 2004: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]