The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) imposed heavy fines on union members who crossed picket lines to work during a strike in October 2004.  The workers refused to pay and the union sued to collect.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has rejected PSAC’s petition, putting a major crimp in union efforts to compel “solidarity”.

According to the decision released by Justice Robert Smith late Wednesday night in the case of Jeffrey Birch and April Luberti vs. the Union of Taxation Employees Local 70030, fines imposed by labour unions are not enforceable by the courts in Ontario.

The ruling sets a precedent and will act as a hurdle to future legal action by any union that tries to collect fines from members, said John Craig, a labour law expert with Heenan Blaikie, the Toronto law firm that represented Mr. Birch and Ms. Luberti.

Hundreds of PSAC members went to work during the strike.  Offenders were fined one day’s gross pay for each day they didn’t walk picket lines.

The union had argued that the fines reflected damages suffered by the union as a result of having members cross picket lines instead of striking.

In his ruling, Judge Smith called the fines "extremely onerous" and "very unfair." He said there was no way for PSAC to accurately determine damages suffered by the union as a result of having a member cross the picket line.

A PSAC representative was nonplussed by the judge’s suggestion that the union could largely avoid the problem by paying more than $50 per day for picket line duty.