Canada Labour Code

But we can't save Canada by selling it off.

The Liberal government's proposed changes to the Canada Labour Code are proving controversial.

The Prime Minister insists Bill C-39 will protect the right to strike, but the opposition NDP and unions are adamant it will do the exact opposite.

What's at stake politically? The Sunday Strategy Session will tackle that question.

But all of the public conversation so far has been about this 107 issue.

Why do we have this 107 issue? We have this 107 issue because this was not previously a tool that was ever for decades used in the Canada Labour Code to solve these disputes.

Typically, if you wanted to put the parties back to work, you would you would go to parliament and you would seek formal legislation, which would take a bit of time.

But it was a very public, transparent process.

Right.

And that, as you say, is also typically how provinces do it as well.

107, which is an obscure piece of the Canada Labour Code, was used first in 2023 in order to solve a nearly month-long strike at the Port of Vancouver and was seen at that time as a really novel way to send something to the Canada Industrial Relations Board that eventually effectively looks like binding arbitration.

And then once that novel application occurred, it became something that was used in the case of WestJet, in the case of the rail strikes, and then, as you said, in the case of Air Canada.

I think in many ways this is in line with what agriculture and other shippers, industries that rely on railways and, and ports to export and to get things to market, uh, have been asking for.

So it, the changes to Section one zero seven or pertaining to Section one zero seven of the Canada Labor Code, this is a section that the, the labor minister the last number of years has had to invoke several times to end strikes, whether we ha- whether we're talking about that dual rail strike a couple of years ago or the airline strike or port strikes.

Uh, and, and this is where the unions have taken the Canadian government to court saying that this infringes on workers' right to strike.

So the legislation introduced this week clarifies, adds some more conditions to when the labor minister can invoke Section one zero seven.

So to just sort of carry forward from what Cody was sort of saying, you definitely see, certainly in Quebec and Ontario now, these clauses will only be enforceable if the employer can demonstrate that it has a real need for the clause and by here i'm speaking more with respect to non-competition clauses courts take a much sort of more lenient view of non-solicitation clauses which they are you know much less hesitant to enforce because they don't normally impact on the right to work And the same thing with non-disclosure agreements.

But when it comes to non-competition clauses, about five or six years ago, the government of Ontario enacted legislation which basically prohibited non-competition clauses for employees, save and except for true senior managers, or like we often say, the C-suite executives, CEO, executive vice president, CFO, etc., Quebec, so as far as I know, it is the only Canadian province that has done that, although recently the federal jurisdiction has enacted similar legislation under the Canada Labor Code.

So, yes, we see them.

And for senior employees, these clauses are enforceable, provided that they are tailored to the employer's requirements and are reasonable with respect to, you know, scope of activity, time, and geographic area.

Two major worker pay rules will take effect across federally regulated Canadian workplaces on October 20, 2026, under the Canada Labour Code.

The first rule prevents covered employers from paying workers less solely because they are full-time, part-time, permanent or temporary when they perform substantially the same work under comparable conditions.

Workers must meet several comparison requirements involving their workplace, duties, skill, effort, responsibility, and type of wage rate.

Referendum day is October 19th.

Labour experts are calling out the Liberal government's proposed changes to a controversial section of the Canada Labour Code.

The Liberals tabled a bill earlier this week that explicitly says the Labour Minister has power to end strikes in federally regulated sectors when disruptions are severe.

Adam King, a labor professor at the University of Manitoba, says the proposed bill gives the government new powers.

Natasha Balowski reports.

Bill C-39 would make changes to the Canada Labour Code, and Labour leaders are not happy.

The most controversial change spells out that a minister can end a strike if it is hurting the national interest.

PSAC North is calling the proposed legislation a blatant attack on workers.