V interactions Inc. v. Syndicat des employées et employés de l’ingénierie de TQS inc. (FNC-CSN), 2013 QCSC 485, February 8, 2013
For the purposes of a meeting with her employers concerning labour relations, an executive employee prepared a document which disclosed difficulties with certain union employees and raised the prospect of their dismissal. A woman employee discovered the document on the printer shared by the employees and photocopied it.
Several months later, the same employee learned that the employer had dismissed several of the unionized employees whose names had appeared on the document. She forwarded the document to the union President. The President then ordered the executive employee who had forwarded the document to appear and testify during a grievance adjudication. Several weeks later, an application for injunction and a claim for damages was filed against the union, its president and a CSN union adviser. The employer and the executive employee alleged that the defendants had no right to possession of the document and sued for $800,000 in damages based on their apprehension that the document could be used for purposes harmful to its interests. The union and its representatives, both of whom were named as defendants, filed a pre-trial motion to dismiss the claim.
According to the Court, no personal fault of the defendants was alleged in the pleadings. The defendants obtained and used the document in the course of performing their union duties. Furthermore, any criticism of the document or reference to it was solely upon grounds arising directly out of the mission of the union within the context of the grievance adjudication. The apprehension of the employer concerning any potentially prejudicial use or circulation of the document for purposes unrelated to the arbitration was not supported by the facts. The filing of the Superior Court claim furthermore caused the procedures before the arbitration tribunal to be suspended. Finally, the damages claimed were excessive. Under these circumstances, the Court dismissed the claim filed by the employer against the union and its representatives.
