United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, Local 175 v Sycamore Partners c.o.b. as RONA Inc., 2024 CanLII 119258 (ON LRB)

This decision arises from an application for certification filed by United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Local 175 (“UFCW”) with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (“the Board”) seeking a recognition of Sycamore Partners c.o.b. as RONA Inc. (“Sycamore”) as a successor employer of RONA Inc. (“RONA”) pursuant to section 69 and/or subsection 1(4) of the Labour Relations Act. Alternatively, UFCW argued that RONA and Sycamore were a single employer for purposes of the Act. This decision by Vice-Chair Michael McCrory addresses Sycamore’s preliminary request that UFCW’s application be dismissed for untimeliness, as well as several outstanding production issues. Sycamore argued that UFCW was aware of the material facts pertinent to this application as of 2019 and in light of that, the Board should dismiss the present application as untimely. Sycamore further claimed that UFCW’s requests for the production of documents were overbroad and amounted to a “fishing expedition”.  On the timeliness issue, the Board accepted UFCW’s submission that it could not have known about the material facts relied upon in this application until 2023 and, as such, the Board denied Sycamore’s request that the application be dismissed as untimely. With regards to production, the Board held that the requested document categories, with a few minor modifications, were arguably relevant to the application and ordered that Sycamore provide the documents to UFCW within 45 days of the decision. https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onlrb/doc/2024/2024canlii119258/2024canlii119258.html