The question of whether labour leaders illegally encouraged hundreds of civilian trade ­workers at CFB Esquimalt not to cross another union’s picket line has been referred back to the federal labour relations board, after a court ruling this week.

The Federal Court of Appeal set aside a previous board ­decision that found the conduct of the Federal Government Dockyards Trades and Labour Council was not unlawful.

The labour council ­represents about 700 workers under 11 trade unions, ­including ­machinists, shipwrights, ­electricians and carpenters, who work at Department of National Defence sites across the capital region.

Their members faced a dilemma when more than 120,000 unionized federal public servants belonging to the ­Public Service Alliance of Canada began a 12-day strike on April 19, 2023, and staged picket lines at the fleet maintenance ­facility at CFB Esquimalt and at the Rocky Point ammunition depot in Metchosin.

The decision from the appeals court released Thursday said that in its previous decision, the federal labour board gave “very little consideration” to whether labour leaders had encouraged workers to engage in illegal job action during the PSAC strikes, the main complaint that had been brought forward by their employer, the Treasury Board.

The board was mostly ­concerned with the question of whether trade workers who refused to cross picket lines in April 2023 were doing so ­individually or collectively, and whether it was an illegal strike, said the decision from Justice Mary Gleason.

The central issue ­considered by the board was whether the council representatives­ ­counselled the ship repair employees to engage in an illegal strike, and not whether such a strike occurred, she wrote.

Gleason wrote that the ­Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board had departed from both its “prior case law and accepted principles” without sufficient reasoning in its initial decision.

“Failure to provide any ­explanation for this ­departure renders its decision ­unreasonable,” she wrote.

The 2023 Public Service ­Alliance of Canada federal worker strike was one of the largest in Canadian history.

PSAC set up picket lines across the country, including at the fleet maintenance facility and ammunition depot, where other unionized employees who were not in a legal strike ­position also worked.

When the 12-day strike started on April 19, 2023, ­unionized trade workers did not cross PSAC picket lines at the Department of National Defence work sites in Greater Victoria, despite requests from ­management to do so.

It would remain that way until the strike ended on May 1.

Workers gathered in ­parking lots near their job sites, and later at Tillicum Centre Mall, to report to managers while the PSAC strike was underway.

The employer argued before the labour board that council ­leaders had encouraged ­unionized employees to refuse work by not crossing the picket line, saying that crossing a picket line was against union principles and that crossing would mean “being ostracized for the rest of one’s working life,” said the labour board’s original decision.

One of those who spoke to the labour board was ­Geoffrey Letwin, a wastewater ­electroplater operator at CFB Esquimalt, who said he didn’t cross the PSAC picket line ­outside Canteen Road because of the strength of the picket line, his union oath and the fear of long-term career consequences of being labelled a “scab.”

According to the labour board, Letwin would later write a letter to the prime minister’s office calling it an “impossible dilemma.”

Ship-repair employees were caught between DND ­management, a strong picket line and their unions, which were threatening to label picket-line crossers as members in poor standing, he said.

The labour board’s now ­set-aside decision found the labour council was “very ­careful not to counsel or direct a strike,” and to follow the direction of local management, which had attempted to find a middle ground by offering workers the option to take leave instead of reporting to work, until upper management in Ottawa quashed the compromise solution.

Des Rogers, a union leader and council president, ­testified to the labour board that he had negotiated a compromise with PSAC to consent to unionized trade workers entering the ­dockyards and to suspend its picket at the Rocky Point ­ammunition depot a day before PSAC reached an agreement with the government.

Under the deal, PSAC members received 11.5 per cent wage increases over four years, among other benefits.

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