The union representing a new group of unionized employees at Corus Entertainment has filed a complaint with the federal labour board, alleging the media company has broken labour laws by scaling back employees’ benefits immediately after they voted in favour of unionizing — and before a new collective agreement could be negotiated.

In its March complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Canadian Media Guild – a local of media union CWA/SCA Canada – alleges Corus penalized the group of 48 workers for voting in favour of unionizing “in an effort to turn employees against the union” and “intimidated individual employees for expressing their views on unionization.”

The Guild claims Corus — which provides specialty TV channels and owns Global News and nearly 40 radio stations in Canada — has engaged in “unfair labour practices,” including reducing employees’ vision care benefits, revoking the employees’ parking passes and terminating their ability to contribute to a group RRSP.

Sean FitzPatrick, legal counsel for the Guild, said the union had been negotiating with Corus until recently, when the two sides reached an impasse over wages and benefits. The union has now created a webpage to draw attention to the dispute.

“They just won’t respect that people have a right to choose to be represented by a union,” FitzPatrick said in an interview. “That seems to be what the senior management are not digesting well.”

Corus did not respond directly to questions about the Canadian Media Guild’s claims, saying only that the company is “engaged in ongoing discussions related to a variety of items, including wages and benefits.”

“Our current focus remains on working through this process so we can reach a deal that’s in the best interests of our people and Corus,” a spokesperson for Corus wrote in an email. “We look forward to meeting with the CMG later this month in hopes of coming closer to an agreement.”

The labour board, the independent body responsible for enforcing the Canada Labour Code, has not yet issued a decision on the union’s complaint — but in May, it did dismiss an application filed by a Corus employee looking to have the union decertified. The board’s decision is being appealed.

In 2016, Corus bought Shaw Media, which resulted in a merger of master control technicians and operators working in Toronto. The 17 workers who came from Shaw were already unionized, while the 31 Corus employees were not. The group held a vote in late January 2017 on whether the new group would unionize under the Canadian Media Guild, which was already representing the Shaw employees.

The vote was split 25-23 in favour of unionization. The labour board certified CMG as the bargaining agent for the group on February 1.

The changes to benefits have predominantly affected the previously non-unionized Corus employees — but the entire group had their parking passes invalidated, FitzPatrick said.

FitzPatrick added that another sticking point for the union is that Corus only wants to negotiate a one-year contract, starting retroactively from Apr. 30, 2017, when the previous three-year collective agreement for Shaw employees expired.

FitzPatrick said at this point, the one-year contract would expire in six months. The union claims this is another “petty” tactic “used to get rid of a union.”

“One-year collective agreements means that you’re in continuous bargaining,” he said.

Corus also did not respond to a question about why the company is seeking a short-term contract. FitzPatrick said Corus representatives told the union that as a result of their acquisition of Shaw Media, the company is “only planning one year at a time and (doesn’t) want to make commitments longer than a year.”

Mark Thompson, a professor of the University of British Columbia who specializes in human resources, said Corus’s alleged behaviour following the union vote “looks illegal.”

“The norm is that when a union comes in the employer can’t mess with the conditions of employment,” he said.

Thompson said tactics like those the union alleges sound like strategies that “anti-union employers have been using for generations” and in the long term, risks scaring workers away from unionizing — particularly those in more precarious industries like the media.

“It presents a challenge to unions and workers to avail themselves of their legal rights,” Thompson said. “It’s supposed to be their choice, free of employer interference. It’s clear in this case that’s not happening.”

The Guild and Corus are scheduled to meet again at the bargaining table later this month. Fitzpatrick added that the “dynamic” between the two parties at the table has been “very good” — but the Corus representatives at the table are limited by marching orders from the top.

“The people representing Corus at the table are very constructive,” he said. “We’ve worked through 90 per cent of the stuff quite well. But the problem is the mandate that the people at the table have on the biggest of issues.”

The Corus-CMG dispute began as Corus was in the middle of fraught contract negotiations with a Unifor bargaining unit which represents approximately 260 Global News staff.

That months-long dispute was resolved in early September.