City+Buick+Pontiac+(Montréal)+Inc.+v.+Roy

Jurisdiction || Tribunal du Travail; 1981 || Facts || Process of negotiations for renewal of collective agreement March 5, 1980: picketing/ lock out of employees began April 2, 1980: employer informs employees that the business is closing In the weeks that followed, the GM commission was abandoned, all the activities of the business stopped and property was sold || Issue(s) || Was the closing of the business because of anti-union animus? || Holding || No. Employer has the right to close business || Ratio || The employees have the benefit of presumption under art.17 of the Code: they have a right to picket art.98 (now 110) states that an employers does not have the right to fire an employee for the simple reason that a strike or lockout is in effect
 * //City Buick Pontiac (Montreal) Inc. c. Roy et al.//**

The employer must prove that he is definitively and absolutely closing his business. It is not illegal for an employer to close his/her business, its part of our liberal economic system - what is illegal is if an employer fires employees for participating in union activities or shut down temporarily because he/she doesn’t want to deal with the union - it is important, however, to scrutinize the circumstances in which the business closed ||