Once a collective agreement covers the required share of regularly employed workers of the same kind, who else at that business or workplace does it then apply to?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the practice file for this exercise, we read the collective agreement itself to see which category of workers it names, the employment records showing which workers are of that kind and in regular use at the business or workplace, and any roster or payroll list from which the proportion covered by that agreement can be worked out.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision as an automatic extension: once workers of the same kind in regular use at one business or workplace, numbering at least the proportion the provision sets, have become subject to one collective agreement, that agreement applies to the other workers of the same kind employed at that business or workplace, with no further act named.
Another reading stresses the limits the wording carries: the extension reaches only workers of the same kind at the same business or workplace, so it does not by itself reach workers of a different kind or at a different site, and the provision says nothing about who decides that the threshold has been met or what steps follow.
Your judgment
When workers dispute whether they are of the same kind, what in the job records could show where the line between kinds of work falls?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the threshold, the category of workers reached, or the procedure for extension, or if a court decision explains how the same kind of work or the boundary of a business or workplace is to be determined.