A former Halifax Transit bus driver convicted of sexual assault has had his complaint against the Amalgamated Transit Union dismissed.
Lynne J. Poirier, vice-chairwoman of the Nova Scotia Labour Board, found that the two-tiered complaint was both untimely and premature.
The complaint was filed under the Trade Union Act on Oct. 7 and Poirier’s written decision was released Monday.
The complainant is identified as TJ in the board decision but The Chronicle Herald has learned that he is Jonathan Clive Twinley, 39, of Halifax. Twinley filed a duty of fair representation complaint, alleging the union’s representation was arbitrary, discriminatory and in bad faith.
Twinley was terminated from his job with Halifax Transit on Oct. 1, 2019. His termination followed complaints from May 2018 that he had harassed two co-workers, fellow union members. Twinley, who was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, said the breach of the union’s obligation to fairly represent him occurred shortly before May 10, 2018, and has continued since that time.
Twinley alleged that the union local president, identified as WK by the board, made statements in conversations with the employer that showed the president believed the allegations against him.
Twinley alleged that a union member identified as OS in the board decision had represented him in June 2018 in a “lacklustre and uncommitted way.” Twinley claimed that OS forced him to choose between the presence of his husband or a union representative to accompany him during a meeting with the employer.
On the ATU local 508 website, Ken Wilson is listed as president and Shane O’Leary as vice-president.
Charged with two counts of sexual assault, Twinley was found not guilty in March 2019 in Halifax provincial court on charges relating to sexual touching alleged to have happened in Halifax between July 2017 and April 2018.
Twinley was convicted of the second charge in September 2019 in Dartmouth provincial court. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation for sexually touching a co-worker on Nov. 21, 2017, in the drivers lounge of the Lower Sackville bus terminal. He is appealing the conviction to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
Twinley said he learned that the union was aware of assaults against him in 2016 and 2018, perpetrated by one of the co-workers who had filed a complaint against him. The union failed to act on that knowledge, he said in his complaint.
Twinley alleged that WK, OS and the entire union executive have a deep-seated dislike against him because of his sexual orientation and his husband’s ethnicity. Because of that animosity, Twinley argued the union local president has not attempted to provide proper representation and has even attempted to influence Halifax Transit management against him, including encouraging the employer to contact police about the sexual assault allegations.
A day after he was fired, WK filed a grievance challenging the firing and requesting “full redress.” Twinley said that was done without his consent and it deprived him of the option to negotiate redress.
The board said that submitted information shows the termination grievance, initially denied by Halifax Transit on Oct. 2, remains active. The union argued that Twinley’s complaint about representation during the 2018 workplace investigation was, when filed, well beyond the 90-day time limit for a duty of fair representation complaint. The union also argued that allegations about the involvement of union representatives WK and OS during the first criminal trial in 2019 were untimely and beyond the scope of the union’s duty of fair representation.
The union asserted that Twinley’s complaint is premature to the extent that it is based on representation in relation to the termination grievance, which is still active.
Poirier ruled that the board would not intervene at this time.
“After the union has finished its representation, TJ may present a further Form 22 (duty of fair representation) within the permissible 90-day time period with respect to the handling of his grievance, if at that time he believes union representation — including the involvement of a union officer who actively represented other union members in their complaints of assault against him — was arbitrary, discriminatory or in bad faith,” Poirier wrote in her decision.
