Review for international group finds gaps on replacement workers, back-to-work legislation
Canada may have some of the best labour standards in the world, but there are still several gaps, according to a new report on Canadian labour standards released by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The report was published for the World Trade Organization to coincide with a review of its trade policies now underway in Switzerland, and focuses on the shortcomings in Canadian labour standards based on the International Labour Organizations (ILO) core conventions.
A key sticking point is freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. According to the report, there are still too many restrictions on trade union rights in Canada. Chief among them is the frequent use of back-to-work legislation and tolerance for replacement workers outside of B.C. and Quebec.
The ITUC is also critical of the treatment of agricultural workers in Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick who have the right to associate but not the right to collectively bargain, while some sectors — such as nurse practitioners in Alberta and principals and vice-principals in Ontario — don’t have the right to organize at all.
“If you don’t have both the freedom to associate and collectively bargain, what have you got?” asks Canadian Labour Congress executive vice-president Barb Byers who is in Geneva for the meetings. “This is still a major issue for us.”
Among many recommendations, the report calls for an amendment to provincial laws to include collective bargaining rights for a wider sector of workers. It also urges the Saskatchewan government to repeal its controversial Act to Amend the Trade Union Act and amend its Public Service Essential Services Act. The ITUC calls for a ban on replacement workers in all provinces as well.
“We have great workplaces in Canada,” says Byers, “but we still don’t recognize the right to collective bargaining and freedom of association. It does matter in the context of corporate social responsibility.”
The ITUC also condemns Canada for its lack of movement on discrimination and equal remuneration since the 2004 Task Force on Pay Equity. The report notes none of the recommendations have been implemented, and criticizes the 2009 federal Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act for prohibiting unions from filing complaints and compelling women to file complaints alone without the support of their union.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” says Byers, noting that women and aboriginal people also continue to be under-represented in the workforce despite laws that prohibit discrimination.
A third area of concern is child labour and forced labour. The ITUC would like to see the Canadian Labour Standards Regulation brought in line with the ILO’s convention on child labour, which requires a child to be at least 18 to perform hazardous work. The report calls particular attention to Saskatchewan, which lowered its minimum age to work to 15 in 2008.
“There are some myths out there about why we can’t ratify this convention,” she says. “Some people say if the government ratifies it then unions will oppose children delivering newspapers or being counselors at summer camp. That’s laughable.”
Finally, the report calls for an overhaul of the Temporary Foreign Workers program with the input of social partners such as unions and support agencies to ensure unscrupulous employers don’t treat migrants as bonded labour.
Byers notes that a draft convention on domestic workers is underway at the World Trade Organization which would set a new standard for that area of labour legislation.
The federal government is also conducting technical reviews of both the convention on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as well as the convention on child labour, to assess the degree to which Canada’s legislation is not compliant.
“We need all of the parties to sit down and say what they’re concerned about,” says Byers.
