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The Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board has found that Natural Resources Canada unreasonably denied approval to one of its Ottawa scientists who wanted to attend a conference at the Westin Hotel.
The decision is a win for federal research scientists, who have identified unwarranted restrictions on conference attendance as their top issue in surveys conducted by their union, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada.
Peter Outridge, a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, submitted an application to attend the Dec. 14 to 17, 2010 conference three weeks before it was due to begin.
Among other reasons, he wanted to attend because a PhD student he was supervising would be presenting a paper on his thesis work at the conference, organized by ArcticNet, a network of scientists whose objective is to study the impacts of climate change and modernization in the coastal Canadian Arctic.
Outridge, who works at the Natural Resources campus on Booth Street, was a network investigator for ArcticNet and had participated in six of its previous conferences.
But the afternoon before the conference was to begin, Outridge was informed by his superiors that his attendance had not been approved, even though ArcticNet had paid his registration fees and there was no cost to the department.
Outridge immediately provided additional information, saying he had been asked to be part of a panel discussion, judge a poster competition and participate in an impact assessment meeting.
But his supervisors were unmoved, the tribunal reports in its decision, released Thursday. Though Natural Resources had approved the attendance of nine other employees at the conference, Outridge’s rationale for attending was inadequate, they told the tribunal.
In the end, Outridge was allowed to attend but had to use four days of personal vacation time to do so.
In his decision, tribunal adjudicator Michael McNamara said he compared Outridge’s 2010 application to attend the conference to one he submitted in 2008 that was approved and also reviewed the rationales presented by the other 10 departmental applicants.
Outridge’s reasons for attending, McNamara concluded, “are at least as reasonable and his application properly justified his attendance.”
Outridge’s employer supported his work supervising the PhD student, he noted. “It should follow that the student’s presentation should be attended by his supervisor.”
While the adjudicator agreed that Outridge’s employer had the discretion to approve or deny his application for attendance, that discretion “is not untrammelled and must be applied in a reasonable and non-arbitrary manner.
“It is difficult to understand why the employer did not use its discretion more proactively and approve Dr. Outridge’s attendance,” McNamara wrote.
He concluded that the department had acted unreasonably and ordered it to reinstate the four days of annual vacation leave that Outridge had used to attend the conference.
In a statement on its website, PIPSC said the decision reaffirmed the union’s position that the discretion granted to managers “is not unlimited and needs to be exercised reasonably.
“As approval processes lengthen, upper management scrutiny increases and approval criteria shift, this sort of issue is something we encourage our members to keep an eye on and let us know about their concerns,” PIPSC said.
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon
查看原文...
The decision is a win for federal research scientists, who have identified unwarranted restrictions on conference attendance as their top issue in surveys conducted by their union, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada.
Peter Outridge, a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, submitted an application to attend the Dec. 14 to 17, 2010 conference three weeks before it was due to begin.
Among other reasons, he wanted to attend because a PhD student he was supervising would be presenting a paper on his thesis work at the conference, organized by ArcticNet, a network of scientists whose objective is to study the impacts of climate change and modernization in the coastal Canadian Arctic.
Outridge, who works at the Natural Resources campus on Booth Street, was a network investigator for ArcticNet and had participated in six of its previous conferences.
But the afternoon before the conference was to begin, Outridge was informed by his superiors that his attendance had not been approved, even though ArcticNet had paid his registration fees and there was no cost to the department.
Outridge immediately provided additional information, saying he had been asked to be part of a panel discussion, judge a poster competition and participate in an impact assessment meeting.
But his supervisors were unmoved, the tribunal reports in its decision, released Thursday. Though Natural Resources had approved the attendance of nine other employees at the conference, Outridge’s rationale for attending was inadequate, they told the tribunal.
In the end, Outridge was allowed to attend but had to use four days of personal vacation time to do so.
In his decision, tribunal adjudicator Michael McNamara said he compared Outridge’s 2010 application to attend the conference to one he submitted in 2008 that was approved and also reviewed the rationales presented by the other 10 departmental applicants.
Outridge’s reasons for attending, McNamara concluded, “are at least as reasonable and his application properly justified his attendance.”
Outridge’s employer supported his work supervising the PhD student, he noted. “It should follow that the student’s presentation should be attended by his supervisor.”
While the adjudicator agreed that Outridge’s employer had the discretion to approve or deny his application for attendance, that discretion “is not untrammelled and must be applied in a reasonable and non-arbitrary manner.
“It is difficult to understand why the employer did not use its discretion more proactively and approve Dr. Outridge’s attendance,” McNamara wrote.
He concluded that the department had acted unreasonably and ordered it to reinstate the four days of annual vacation leave that Outridge had used to attend the conference.
In a statement on its website, PIPSC said the decision reaffirmed the union’s position that the discretion granted to managers “is not unlimited and needs to be exercised reasonably.
“As approval processes lengthen, upper management scrutiny increases and approval criteria shift, this sort of issue is something we encourage our members to keep an eye on and let us know about their concerns,” PIPSC said.
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon
查看原文...
