Question Period Note: MODERN FEDERAL LABOUR STANDARDS

Amendments to the Canada Labour Code made by the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2 (Bill C-86) to ensure that employees in federally regulated enterprises have a robust and modern set of labour standards that reflects the realities of the 21st century workplace and sets the stage for good quality jobs.

• In recent years, significant economic and technological changes have affected the world of work and altered the ways Canadians work. For example, many Canadians struggle to support their families in part-time, temporary and low-wage jobs. They may work several jobs to make ends meet, face unpredictable hours, and lack benefits and access to labour standards.
• While there have been improvements in recent years, until now federal labour standards generally failed to keep pace with transformations in the workplace.
• That’s why, as part of Bill C-86, we made a number of amendments to the Canada Labour Code that will strengthen the rights and protections of employees in the federally regulated private sector, and equip employers and employees to succeed in the changing world of work.
• Several changes came into force on September 1, 2019 including new leaves such as the new personal leave, new breaks such as medical break and an additional week of vacation after four years of employment.
• Other changes are planned to come into force in the next two years when necessary regulations are in place, including new provisions ensuring equal treatment for all employees regardless of their employment status, allowing recovery of work-related expenses and increasing the minimum age of employment for hazardous work to 18.
• These changes will improve access to labour standards, support better work-life balance, ensure employees in precarious work are treated fairly, and provide additional protections for employees who lose their jobs. They will also benefit employers by reducing absenteeism, improving recruitment and retention and improving employee well-being – all of which can lead to an increase in productivity.
• Modernizing the Code to promote good quality jobs is a key part of the Government’s strategy to ensure that all Canadians have a real and fair chance at success, and we are proud to have taken action to do it.

• Part III (Labour Standards) of the Canada Labour Code (the Code) establishes minimum standards of employment in the federal private sector such as hours of work, minimum wages, annual vacations, leaves, termination of employment and severance pay. It covers the federally regulated private sector and Crown corporations (but not the federal public service).

• One of the priorities identified in the mandate letter of the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour is to promote good quality jobs by updating the Code to “ensure that Canadians continue to have a robust and modern set of federal employment standards”, suggesting that “[t]his can build on the 2006 federal report, Fairness at Work: Federal Labour Standards for the 21st Century”.

• Fairness at Work is the final report of the Federal Labour Standards Review Commission, which was released in October 2006. It set out nearly 200 recommendations to modernize Part III of the Code and foster decency at work, most of which had not yet been implemented.

• Initial updates to federal labour standards were made through Bill C-44, the Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 1 (assented to in June 2017). Once in force these changes will strengthen compliance and enforcement tools under Part II (Occupational Health and Safety) and Part III (Labour Standards) of the Code.

• Additional updates to federal labour standards were made through Bill C-63, the Budget Implementation Act 2017, No. 2 (assented to in December 2017). In particular, these provide for a number of amendments to the Code which, as of September 1, 2019:
o Give employees in the federal private sector the right to request flexible work arrangements from their employer;
o Introduce new unpaid leaves for employees, including to participate in traditional Indigenous practices (5 days) and seek care if they (or their minor child) are victims of family violence (10 days); and
o Enhance bereavement leave.

• Additional changes in Bill C-63 are expected to come into force in 2020 aiming to limit unpaid internships.

• Bill C-44 also amended the Code to reflect changes to the Employment Insurance Act. These amendments, which came into force on March 12, 2017, increased the maximum length of parental leave to 63 weeks, expanded the period within which maternity leave can be taken (allowing it to start 13 weeks prior to the estimated date of birth), created a new leave to care for a critically ill adult family member and expanded the list of family members who can avail themselves of the leave related to the critical illness of a child.

• From May 2017 to March 2018, the Labour Program consulted with employers and employer organizations, unions and labour organizations, experts and individual Canadians to gather their views on:
o Good quality jobs;
o How the nature of work is changing;
o The challenges people are facing in the workplace; and
o How federal labour standards could be updated to strike a better balance between the needs of employers and employees in today’s world of work.

• The results of these consultations were released on August 30, 2018 in a “What We Heard” report. Employers and employer organizations felt that federal labour standards should be more flexible to allow employers to operate nimbly, remain competitive and adapt to industry-specific realities. Labour organizations recommended that federal labour standards be raised to meet or exceed the highest standards in the provinces and territories. This includes improving access to leaves and annual vacation, further supporting work-life balance, providing better protections for employees in non-standard employment, updating termination of employment provisions, and providing for good wages and benefits.

• Further updates to federal labour standards were made through Bill C-86, the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, which received Royal Assent on December 13, 2018. Of the numerous changes included in Bill C-86, the following came into force on September 1, 2019:
o Improve employees’ access to labour standards by eliminating or reducing the minimum length of service requirements for general holiday pay, several leaves, and three weeks of vacation with pay;
o Improve work-life balance by:
 adding an unpaid 30-minute break within each five-hour period at work, an 8-hour rest period between shifts, and unpaid breaks for nursing or medical reasons;
 requiring employers to provide 96 hours’ advance notice of schedules;
 adding a fourth week of annual vacation with pay after 10 or more years of service;
 introducing a new five-day personal leave, of which three days are paid, and five days of paid leave for victims of family violence (out of 10 days in total);
 improving access to medical leave; and
 introducing a new unpaid leave for court or jury duty.
o Modify the leave of absence for members of the reserve force to reduce length of service requirements to qualify (from six to three months) and to cover military skills training; and
o Improve the administration of Part III of the Code through technical amendments, by broadening the scope of health care practitioners who can issue medical certificates.
• Additional changes in Bill C-86 are expected to come into force in 2020 and later to:
o Ensure fair treatment and compensation for employees in precarious work by:
 prohibiting differences in pay based on the employment status of employees;
 protecting temporary help agency employees from unfair practices (e.g. charging certain fees, paying lower wages than employees of the client performing substantially the same work);
 requiring employers to provide employees with information about labour standards and their terms of employment;
 entitling all employees, irrespective of their employment status, to be informed of employment or promotion opportunities;
 prohibiting employers from misclassifying employees as independent contractors;
 protect employees’ continuity of employment when there is contract retendering within the federal private sector, or when their work is transferred from a provincially regulated employer to a federally regulated employer;
 allowing an employee to seek reimbursement of work-related expenses;
 raising the minimum age for hazardous work from 17 to 18; and
 adding new regulation-making powers to allow the expansion of coverage under Part III of the Code to additional categories of workers.
o Ensure that employees receive sufficient notice and/or compensation when their jobs are terminated by:
 updating group termination provisions, to allow pay in lieu of notice and ensure that affected employees also receive additional individual notice of their precise date of employment termination;
 replacing the two-week notice of individual termination requirement with a graduated notice of termination based on their length of service (reaching eight weeks of notice after eight years of continuous employment); and
 requiring employers to inform employees whose employment is terminated about their termination rights.
o Improve the administration of Part III of the Code through technical amendments, including by:
 providing for the designation of a new Head of Compliance and Enforcement responsible for the day-to-day administration of Parts II to IV of the Code, with the support of delegated officials;
 eliminating the duplication of recourse mechanisms; and
 clarifying rules for the suspension and rejection of complaints.
• Outreach and education activities have been completed to ensure that employers, employees and others are aware of the changes. Additional changes introduced under Bill C-44 and Bill C-86 are planned to come into force in the next two years once necessary regulations are in place.

• Regulatory development is underway in support of modernizing Part III of the Code. The regulations under development notably concern exemptions and modifications to certain new hour of work provisions for targeted classes of employees (e.g. advance notice of schedules, breaks, rest time). Various administrative requirements (e.g. record keeping requirements) are also needed in regulations.

• During initial regulatory consultations with stakeholders, including employer and employee representatives, held from May to August 2019, stakeholders expressed diverging views regarding a number of new provisions. Employers raised serious concerns about the impact of the hours of work changes on continuous, 24/7 operations in sectors across the federal jurisdiction and have requested that certain classes of employees be subject to regulatory exemptions. Employee representatives expressed support for the new hours of work provisions and oppose exemption regulations, emphasising the importance of modernization efforts and work-life balance.

• Further consultations will be held in the Fall 2019 – Winter 2020 to inform the regulatory development.

• Issues related to federal labour standards and the changing nature of work requiring more in-depth review and discussion have been examined by an expert panel. The panel studied issues such as: the minimum wage, the “right to disconnect” (the right to refuse to respond to work-related communications outside working hours), labour standards coverage for workers in non-standard employment, access to and portability of benefits and collective voice for non-unionized workers.

• Federal labour standards cover approximately 935,000 employees (or 6% of all Canadian employees) working for 18,630 employers in industries such as banking, telecommunications, broadcasting and inter-provincial and international transportation (including air, rail, maritime, and trucking), as well as federal Crown corporations and certain activities on First Nations reserves.

• More than 58,000 employees in federally regulated enterprises are in temporary employment. This includes both full and part-time employees who are employed on a casual, seasonal, term or contract basis. Another 17,700 are in involuntary permanent part-time employment because they cannot find a suitable full-time job. These workers are more at risk of earning low wages and lacking basic benefits (e.g. insurance, pension), with job insecurity and irregular work schedules and with the fear of reprisal in the workplace if they express concerns. Women, Indigenous people, visible minorities, recent immigrants and young people are overrepresented in this type of precarious work.

• As part of a series of engagement activities in 2017-2018, online public consultations on modernizing federal labour standards took place in January 2018. All Canadians, including employees, labour organizations, individual employers and employer organizations in federally regulated sectors, were invited to participate by completing a survey and sharing their views on how federal labour standards should be updated and what a “good quality job” means to them. In total, 3,138 individuals participated in the survey and 21 written submissions and 23 personal stories were received. A report on what was heard during the consultations was released on August 30, 2018.

• Bill C-86, the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, which received Royal Assent on December 13, 2018, makes a number of changes to federal labour standards. Among other things, these changes: improve access to selected labour standards, particularly for employees with temporary or unstable employment; support better work-life balance for employees by introducing new breaks, a minimum eight-hour rest period between shifts, expanded leaves and a requirement for advance notice of work schedules; enhance reservist leave; ensure that employees in precarious work are paid and treated fairly and have access to labour standards; ensure that employees receive sufficient notice or pay in lieu of notice when their jobs are terminated; and improve the administration of Part III of the Code through technical amendments, including broadening the scope of health care practitioners who can issue medical certificates and allowing the designation of a new Head of Compliance and Enforcement.