Wal-Mart breaks the labour code?

Wal-Mart's closing of unionized store breached Labour Code, arbitrator finds

By closing its first unionized outlet in North America in 2005 and throwing some 190 employees out of work less than a year after union certification was granted and before a first contract could be achieved, U.S.-based retail giant Wal-Mart violated a prohibition in the Quebec Labour Code against changing "the conditions of employment" of employees after an application for certification had been filed, a Quebec arbitrator has found. The arbitrator held that it did not suffice for Wal-Mart to invoke unspecified "business reasons" for the store closing and the resulting layoffs, without explaining satisfactorily what those reasons were.

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