Arbitration under the Canada Labour Code: A Neglected Policy and an Incomplete Legislative Framework

Arbitration under the Canada Labour Code' is an elusive subject. There is not independent text on law in the federal jurisdiction, where grievance arbitration is a neglected policy operating within an imcomplete legislative framework. The lack of prominence of a federal body of arbitral law and practice is readily exemplified by the fact that the federal law influence is frequently ignored or overlooked. A pertinent example is a 1976 case involving British Columbia Telephone Company and the Federation of Telephone Workers of British Columbia in which an arbitration board of three prominent members of the bar proceeded pursuant to the Labour Code of British Columbia. 2 Such oversights are not confined to British Columbia. In Ontario arbitrators have applied provincial legislation to arbitrations involving Air Canada3 and C. N. Telecommunications.