Travel Expenses – Timeliness

Precedents with regards to timeliness generally support the position of the Bargaining Agent representative, 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 instance, the triggering event appears to be the July 5, 2006 verbal denial of the recalculated claim, based on the awareness several months before of a similar NJC grievance decision.

Since the grievance was submitted 5 days after the letter from the employer, refusing the grievor's claim, the grievance can be deemed timely.

It is to be noted however, that the grievance statement specifies (and no evidence on file refutes this) that the grievor was only informed verbally by management. The refusal has not been documented.

The Executive Committee considered the issue of timeliness in this case and agreed that the grievance was deemed to be timely and should be referred to the Government Travel Committee for review.