Chaplains belong in the union, Ontario arbitrator rules

Spiritual care workers are included in OPSEU agreement

Toronto (28 Nov. 2008) - In a ground-breaking decision, an arbitrator has ruled that spiritual care service associates – chaplains − can be included as dues-paying members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE).

Arbitrator C. Gordon Simmons has ruled that spiritual care service associates at the Providence Community Care Centre (PCCC) mental health site in Kingston and any of its satellite sites must be treated as employees under the collective agreement of Local 431.

Despite the employer’s many objections and arguments, Simmons found that the spiritual care associates had a community of interest with other members of OPSEU. In his ruling he said that the workers “form an integral part of the clinical teams which serve patients of the former Kingston Psychiatric Hospital and therefore are members of the union and should have dues deducted.”

He added: “I find the core duties performed by (spiritual care service associates) to be similar to those duties of other members of the clinical teams. Each team member brings certain elements of expertise to the conference table in relation to specific patients which contribute to the overall health and well-being of the patients they care for.”

It's the work that counts

The ruling is significant for several reasons, says Local 431 president Sheryl Ferguson.

“This was a big test of our scope language which was ordered by the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB),” she notes.

“The test proved that it’s not your title that puts you in a bargaining unit, but the work you do ... this puts to rest the assumption that religious or spiritual providers are somehow second-class workers in Ontario. They should enjoy all the rights and privileges afforded a member of the bargaining unit. For too long they risked termination if they questioned the employer," Ferguson adds.

“This shows that they do not simply lead a religious service inside the organization but they are part of the treatment process.”

The employer argued that associates exercised a certain level of pastoral confidentiality and that they not only provided a service to patients but also to non-union staff members. The employer said that receiving such information and not being able to share it with others could put the associates in a conflict of interest with their union.

Simmons, vice-chair of the board, said that he could not “envisage a situation arising where an individual would reveal information to a spiritual care services associate that could have some impact, adverse or otherwise, on some relationship concerning the union.”

OPSEU filed a policy grievance with PCCC in January 2004 after learning that chaplains were no longer hired on a fee-for-service basis. All of the affected employees signed union cards because they wanted to belong to OPSEU but the employer refused to deduct union dues. NUPGE