ATU, Local 615 v. Sillito, 2026 SKLRB 52 deals with the boundary between the statutory duty of fair representation and a union's internal affairs.
The dispute arose from an internal union election challenge. One branch of the case attempted to rely on the duty of fair representation. Another raised concerns about natural justice in the union's internal challenge process.
The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board treated those issues differently. It summarily dismissed the fair representation branch because that statutory duty does not automatically govern every disagreement arising from internal union affairs. The board nevertheless concluded that the natural justice concern was arguable enough to proceed.
The ruling is preliminary, so it does not establish that the internal process was actually unfair. It establishes only that the natural justice issue should not be disposed of summarily on the existing record.
That distinction matters for unions and members. The duty of fair representation is powerful, but it is tied to the union's representative role in relation to employees and the employer. It is not a general fairness code for every internal decision a union makes.
Internal governance can still be subject to other statutory requirements. A process involving election challenges, discipline or membership rights may raise natural justice concerns even when a fair representation claim is unavailable.
For unions, the safer operational lesson is to keep the two questions separate. First ask whether the dispute concerns representation of an employee in the workplace. Then ask whether the union's own internal process complied with the procedural obligations that apply to it. A claim can fail under one route and still survive under the other.