Candu Energy Inc. mandated all employees to return to the workplace as of last Monday, a requirement the union representing SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. engineers says amounts to a negotiating tactic amid a rotating strike at Ontario’s Darlington nuclear plant
engineers has filed a complaint with the national labour board alleging bad-faith bargaining after a subsidiary ordered workers back to the office full-time with one business day’s notice.
Union spokesperson Denise Coombs said SNC-Lavalin’s sudden move to bring roughly 900 engineers, scientists and technicians back to the office five days a week has sent them scrambling for living arrangements after more than two years of remote work. It amounts to an unfair labour practice given the bargaining context, according to the union’s filing to the Canada Labour Relations Board.
The union received an offer for a collective agreement at a June 2 meeting, where the company also gave it a heads-up on its imminent back-to-the-office memo, Coombs said. Fortin cited collaboration, training and integration of new hires among the benefits of returning to a shared workspace. “This letter should not be taken as support for either side as we respect the collective bargaining process, and at the same time expect to be treated as customers, not a negotiation point,” OPG CEO Ken Hartwick and Bruce Power CEO Michael Rencheck said in a letter to SNC and the union dated Tuesday and obtained by The Canadian Press.