Reference no: EM133307369

Assignment: Ellis and Kasam are great friends in Toronto, Ontario, who happen to be unemployed. After a long job search, they come across an advertisement for Shoe Help Ltd., a temporary help agency that promises "great advancement in the exciting shoe industry!" Any potential workers just have to show up at their office and go through an interview. Desparate for some income, Ellis and Kasam decide to visit the Shoe Help Ltd. Office and go through an interview.

When they arrive at the Shoe Help Ltd. office, they notice that it's in a strip-mall, right beside a very large Plastic Shoes Inc. retail outlet. Plastic Shoes Inc. is the largest big-box retailer of cheap plastic shoes across Canada, with stores in almost every Canadian city.

Ten minutes after filling out an employment application form in the Shoe Help Ltd. office, Ellis and Kasam are informed that they are hired by Shoe Help Ltd. For their temporary assignment, they are assigned to be customer service agents in the Plastic Shoes Inc. big box store - right next door.

Ellis and Kasam arrive at the Plastic Shoes Inc. store to start their training. At the training session, all of the trainers are employees of Plastic Shoes Inc. The trainers show Powerpoint slide presentations - all of which contain Plastic Shoes Inc. corporate policies, and workplace rules. They are informed that they will be reporting to, and taking direction from, managers who are employees of Plastic Shoes Inc. However, they are told that if they any human resources issues or questions, and to get their biweekly paychecks, they must go the the Shoe Help Ltd. office, because they are Shoe Help Ltd. employees. The trainers then show the organizational structure for the Plastic Shoes Inc. store, which includes:

10 managers (who supervise and discipline) who are employees of Plastic Shoes Inc.,
5 human resources and training staff (they do both roles, and have access to confidential human resources and corporate information) who are employees of Plastic Shoes Inc.,
15 cashiers (who have some access to confidential commercial information of the company) who are employees of Plastic Shoes Inc.,
100 floor sales staff who are employees of Shoe Help Ltd., and
50 warehouse staff who are employees of Shoe Help Ltd.

Ellis and Kasam head out to the sales floor of the Plastic Shoes Inc. store. A child and his father approach Ellis and Kasam to look at the new "Super Dinosaur Shoes". Kasam starts putting the shoes onto the child. Suddenly, the child smacks Kasam in the face. Kasam says sternly to the child "that's rude!" The father grabs his child: "This is terrible customer service, I am complaining!"

Ellis and Kasam's supervisor at Plastic Shoes Inc., Alicia, comes over. "You two are suspended, go home for the day!" Ellis and Kasam are shocked, but they pack up and go home for the day.

The next morning, Ellis and Kasam are in the lunch room grabbing toast and coffee before their shift, and they overhear a colleague, Muriel, complaining how her supervisor at Plastic Shoes Inc. never lets her take any washroom breaks, and then gave her a written reprimand the day earlier when she complained that she really had to go. Ellis and Kasam are intrigued, and so they approach Muriel in order to also discuss their suspension from the day before. Muriel says she knows a union organizer for the Ontario Service Workers Union (OSWU), and maybe they should consider trying to organize the customer service staff at Plastic Shoes Inc. into a union. Ellis and Kasam are hesistant at first, worried that word of the union drive might lead to their firing. Muriel says "think about it", and the three of them head out to start their work day.

After the end of the shift, Ellis, Kasam, and Muriel get together, and they decide they are going to start a union drive. They contact the OSWU, who provides with membership cards. The OSWU figures that 40 of the 100 sales floor staff is enough to make the application for union certification. Ellis, Kasam and Muriel organize secret meetings with all of the 100 sales floor staff, and manage to get the signatures on 40 of the membership cards. OSWU files the application for certification of OSWU as the exclusive bargaining unit for all Plastic Shoes Inc. customer service staff.

Plastic Shoes Inc.'s management responds to the union certification application. In its response it states that:

Plastic Shoes Inc. is not the employer of the 100 customer service staff. The actual employer is the temporary help agency, Shoe Help Ltd. Thus, the 100 customer service staff are not employees of Plastic Shoes Inc., and unable to make an application for certification.

Plastic Shoes Inc.'s management provides further responses to the OSWU's certification application, this time challenging the appropriateness of the proposed "bargaining unit" with regard to the 100 customer service staff at Plastic Shoes Inc. In its representations it states:

The bargaining unit should be all 100 customer service staff, the 50 warehouse staff, 15 cashiers, and the 5 trainers/HR staff. Only the 10 managers should be excluded. This means that 170 employees would form the bargaining unit and the majority support of such unit would be required for certification.
Question: Issue: Provide both the (1) OSWU and (2) Plastic Shoes Inc.'s arguments in relation to the appropriate "bargaining unit" in this situation.