An Alberta grievance has been allowed to proceed even though it was referred to arbitration one day after the deadline in the collective agreement. The employer raised a preliminary objection and argued that the late referral should prevent the grievance from being heard on its merits. It also relied on laches, arguing that later delay in moving the grievance forward should independently bar the proceeding. The arbitrator rejected both arguments. The collective agreement allowed relief from the filing deadline where there were reasonable grounds and where extending the time would not cause undue prejudice. The arbitrator found that standard was met. The referral was only one day late. There was a reasonable explanation for the delay and the employer had not shown that the short delay caused the kind of prejudice that would justify preventing the grievance from being heard. The arbitrator therefore extended the deadline. The employer’s separate laches argument also failed. Laches is concerned with delay that has a meaningful prejudicial effect. Delay on its own is not enough.
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