Another gift from the Harper Government
Every time a new budget bill comes around lately, it’s always chock-full of surprises… and not the good kind!
There are many things that are troubling about this particular Budget Implementation Act. We released a statement yesterday expressing our concern for the collective bargaining process, health and safety in the workplace and the rights of those who are victims of discrimination.
Collective bargaining rights under attack
The government’s bill has already been described as having “surprise reforms aimed at weakening public service unions”.
The government wants more control over the collective bargaining process; it wants to decide who can strike and who can’t… mostly who can’t! From the Ottawa Citizen’s Kathryn May:
“The most worrisome reform revolves around the right to arbitration as a way to settle contract disputes. The government intends to only allow arbitration if both parties — Treasury Board and the unions — agree. If they don’t agree, conciliation and a possible strike are the only other alternatives for unions to settle labour disputes.
At the same time, however, the government has reserved the “exclusive” right to decide which jobs will be designated ‘essential’ which means employees in those jobs can’t strike. Employees in bargaining groups where the government has designated 80 per cent to be essential will be allowed to seek arbitration to settle impasses.”
Our union is outraged that the government would attempt to remove arbitration as a key option in the collective bargaining process. By restricting our options at the bargaining table, the government is demonstrating its contempt for a fair collective bargaining process.
Taking the teeth out of health and safety legislation
Equally worrisome is the fact that this government is once again putting Canadian workers’ lives at risk. If this bill sees royal assent, health and safety officers at the Labour Program will effectively be stripped of their power and authority, which will then be handed over to the minister.
Health and safety officers are responsible for enforcing Part II of the Canada Labour Code, which applies to 10% of workplaces across the country.
“Every single reference to a ‘health and safety officer’ is being replaced by ‘the minister’,” explained National President Doug Marshall. “From a political perspective, there’s no longer any arm’s length; this opens the door to politics interfering with enforcement of the Canada Labour Code.”
Our members working as health and safety officers aren’t surprised; the Labour Program has been tightening the shackles, making it increasingly difficult for these members to carry out their regular duties and almost impossible to prosecute employers.
“The department has set it up so that health and safety officers have to ask for permission each time they travel to perform workplace safety inspection activity,” said Marshall.
“They used to be able to do their work and put in their expense claims afterwards – but now, they have to predict all their expenses and get senior management approval in advance – there’s a huge administrative burden being placed on people who are already dealing with serious safety complaints and worker fatality investigations.”
A major change in the budget bill centres on refusal-to-work legislation. It’s important to remember that there are countless men and women who paid the ultimate price for refusal-to-work legislation – and it’s being gutted.
The government wants to change the definition of “danger” to re-introduce the term “imminent”. This term had been removed decades ago and represents a huge set-back in terms of worker safety. This would dramatically affect health and safety officers’ response. At present, a refusal to perform unsafe work generates an immediate intervention by a health and safety officer.
“Adding the word imminent means that unless an unguarded saw blade is about to cut your arm off, no one’s coming right away,” said Marshall. “You’re being asked to work with asbestos? Well that’s not going to give you lung cancer in the next thirty seconds – it’s not an imminent danger.”
These are emergency situations; and with budget cut-backs, health and safety officers already feel pressured to conduct these important investigations by phone…. !
The bill also includes a bunch of downright bizarre changes, such as allowing for the labour code to be enforced electronically (which the Labour Program has interpreted to mean that carrying out “virtual investigations” will be accepted under the law…) and the ability for the minister to delegate health and safety officers’ powers to third parties or the provinces.
Taking away options for the victims of discrimination
On the human rights front, the bill will completely eliminate the right of public service employees from filing discrimination complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, instead requiring them to go to the Public Service Labour Relations Board with discrimination issues. Although many discrimination cases already go to the Public Service Labour Relations Board, the right to file a human rights complaint, and the involvement of the Commission Human Rights Canada in some cases, has been very important to ensuring that our members have a full access to the rights and remedies available under the Canadian Human Rights Act, as all other federal workers do. This is especially important in cases where discrimination affects many workers in a workplace. This change will shut that door permanently.
Additionally, the bill plans to merge the Public Service Staffing Tribunal with the Public Service Relations Board, which would then be renamed the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board.
And while we’re on this government’s favourite topic (renaming stuff for no apparent reason), the bill also plans to rename Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to the Department of Employment and Social Development.
This story is developing; the PSAC and the UNE are working together to meet this bill with direct action. Please keep an eye on our website and the PSAC’s website. Better yet, follow us on Facebook or Twitter to get the latest breaking news.