Practice Guide for Hearing Appeals
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Filing an Appeal
Notice of appeal
An appeal is initiated by sending to an appeals officer, through the Office, a written notice to that effect signed by the appellant, generally with the related decision or direction issued by the health and safety officer.
Optional application form
An appeal can be initiated by duly filling and signing the notice form. It can also be made without using that form, as long as the appellant provides to the Office all the information required to contact him and be advised of the nature of the appeal. This information must include the appellant’s name and, if need be, the name of his representative, and their respective addresses, the employer’s name and address, the name of the union if there is one, and the name of the health and safety officer who issued the decision or direction under appeal.
Date Grounds of appeal
The notice of appeal must also indicate the date when the appellant was informed of the health and safety officer’s direction or decision and a summary of the grounds of appeal.
Representative
Any party to an appeal may choose to act on his own behalf or through a duly authorized representative.
The appeals officer may require that the representative demonstrate his authorization to act in this capacity.
Notification to interested persons
On receiving an appeal, the appeals officer may, where possible, notify in the manner he sees fit any person whose rights, in his opinion, are directly affected by the appeal.
Time limits
The Canada Labour Code, Part II, sets the time limits to appeal.
The appellant who cannot initiate the proceeding within the time limit must inform an appeals officer of the reasons that would justify extending that time limit. The appeals officer will decide the matter after giving all parties the opportunity to present their position on the issue.
Date of receipt
The date of receipt of a notice of appeal or of any related documents for which a time limit for filing has been set is:
- for regular or registered mail, the postmark;
- in any other case, the date of receipt by the Office.
Filing and service of documents
The filing of a notice of appeal and the service of documents to any party, representative or interested person is made:
- in person;
- by mail (preferably registered), to the address of service; or
- by fax (with proof of transmission).
Address of service
For the purpose of filing or serving documents, the address of service means:
- in the case of an appeals officer, the address of the Office;
- in the case of any other party or person, the address appearing on the notice of appeal or, if there is none, the last known address of the party or person.