The “Respecting Collective Bargaining Act” will do anything but
The Ontario government has prepared draft legislation that it says will result in temporary compensation restraint measures in the broader public sector.
In fact, the proposed legislation – the Respecting Collective Bargaining Act (Public Sector), 2012 – has the potential to completely eviscerate public sector collective bargaining in Ontario. In our view,
… as drafted, the proposed legislation not only sets the stage for across the board wage freezes and restrictions on individual salary movement within range, but is also broad enough to allow for compensation reductions as well as a host of changes to non-compensation provisions of collective agreements. This is because the proposed powers under the legislation would allow the responsible Minister to veto a collective agreement, override any collective agreement provision (no matter how long it may have been enshrined in the prior collective agreement and whether or not it relates to compensation), and impose any collective agreement provision.
We have prepared a summary and analysis of the proposed legislation here.
Lawyers
Steven Barrett, Ethan Poskanzer, Vanessa Payne