Travel Expenses – Timeliness

Precedents with regards to timeliness indicate that the grievor's moment of documented awareness of the event or circumstance which triggers the grievance (often the documented refusal of a request by the employer) begins the clock.

In this case, the bargaining agent suggests the time of awareness is the discussion the grievor had with colleagues in July 2004 where he discovered they had been reimbursed for similar claims. Further, the employees grieved the denial of the new claim within 2 days of documented awareness.

The employer suggests the denial of the travel expenses was first communicated to the grievor in July of 2003; this date thus triggering the 25 day period.

It is to be noted that management did not deny the new claim, but in fact refused to accept it, stating that as per prior discussions, it was agreed there would be no expenses for this period of travel. Also, the grievor did not submit claims for travel during the period in question, but only submitted these in July 2004.

The Executive Committee considered the issue of timeliness in this case and agreed that the grievance was deemed to be untimely.