Bilingual Bonus

The grievor sought that his position be identified as bilingual and that he be paid the bilingualism bonus with effect retroactive to March 1987.

The employee occupies a unilingual French position. The management personnel of the establishments that he supervises are all unilingual Francophones. The grievor's supervisor recommended that his position be identified bilingual. The supervisor himself occupies a unilingual French position. The employee took the Second Language Evaluation and was successful at level CCC.

All the personnel who worked for the grievor were Francophones. He added that the employee sometimes spoke English to persons who installed pieces of equipment or to brokers. The employee took two technical training courses of short duration in English. These courses were available in French. However, the employee preferred to take them in English in order to maintain and/or improve his knowledge of the second language.

The Administrative Committee noted that the Official Languages Committee agreed that there was marginal use, at the employee's request, of English and that the employee possessed language skills in English. However, the Committee could not establish that the complainant's duties objectively required the use of both official languages. It was established that the employee worked in a Francophone region under the supervision of a Francophone supervisor and operational requirements did not necessitate the use of both official languages.

The Administrative Committee considered and agreed with the report of the Official Languages Committee in that the employee was treated within the intent of the policy in that there was no measurable evidence to justify payment of the bilingualism bonus.

The grievance was denied.