On May 8th, PIPSC made formal submissions to the Federal Court as part of judicial review challenging the employer’s classification decision of the Veterinary Program Officer/Evaluator/Analyst VM-03 (decision 59652) job description.
While PIPSC previously secured several improvements to this job description at the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board (PSLREB), the employer nonetheless upheld its longstanding VM-03 classification. Not a single factor rating was changed despite significant improvements.
The employer subsequently denied our classification grievance in 2024. PIPSC believes this denial is unreasonable and has asked the court to declare it as such. Although the legal threshold for overturning such decisions is high—courts typically grant significant deference to administrative bodies like the CFIA’s classification committee—we have made the strongest possible arguments that the CFIA’s decision was unreasonable based on the facts of this case.
If the court agrees, it will not reclassify the position itself, but will instead order the CFIA to revisit and reassess its previous classification decision.
We will provide further updates as developments occur - a decision may take several months.