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Ninety-five former Saskatchewan Transportation Co. employees will receive more than eight weeks’ salary after an arbitrator found the Crown corporation violated their collective bargaining agreement last spring.

William Hood declined to award Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1374 the $500,000 in punitive damages it requested in the grievance filed on April 17, 2017, days after it was announced the bus company would shut down.

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However, in a decision handed down last month, Hood upheld the union’s view that STC violated two sections of the Canada Labour Code, which apply to group terminations, as the 71-year-old company was wound up.

In finding that STC did not give its employees the 16 weeks’ notice required by Section 212 of the Code, Hood deemed them eligible for those funds, less the seven weeks and four days notice they were provided.

Hood’s conclusion that STC did not establish a joint planning committee during the shutdown resulted in him awarding each of the affected employees $100, for a total of $9,500, according to the decision.