Over the last 30 years, it has become increasingly clear that Canada’s current model for establishing labour standards and collective bargaining, which developed during and immediately after the Second World War, has not sufficiently adapted to our present labour market. Increasingly, Canadian workers, particularly in the private sector, lack access to collective representation, or to any meaningful participation in deciding the conditions under which they work.
Declining incidence of collective bargaining in the private sector is not a new problem in Canada. Union density has been falling since the early 1980s as a result of a variety of factors, including globalization of production, fracturing of the workplace through contracting out, and changing organization of work such as the growth of gig work.
In recognition of these long-term trends, there have been several proposals in several Canadian jurisdictions, since at least the early 1990s, aimed at introducing some form of broader-based, sectoral bargaining into the existing system of Canadian labour relations. Compelling evidence exists that centralized bargaining structures offer significant benefits to workers, including higher levels of collective agreement coverage, better labour standards and labour market integration for vulnerable workers, reduced unemployment, higher employment, and reduced wage inequality.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Centre for Future Work launched a web page on Broader Based Bargaining and the first piece is a paper written by Professor Sara Slinn and myself entitled “Bargaining Sectoral Standards: Towards Canadian Fair Pay Agreement Legislation“.*
This paper considers the recently introduced New Zealand Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) sectoral bargaining framework. In essence, an FPA is a sector-wide collective agreement negotiated by an employers’ association and a union council. Our paper offers a preliminary series of ideas and proposals setting out how an FPA model for bargaining sectoral standards could work in Canada. It is intended as the beginning of a more detailed discussion on the development of an FPA regime culminating in model
legislation that could be adapted to different Canadian jurisdictions.
An FPA model is attractive because it combines enhanced access to collective bargaining with the concept of implementing broad sectoral standards for workers across the economy through collective bargaining. This is not a new concept internationally, as countries such as Australia, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Sweden, and Belgium already have some form of industry-wide minimum standards.
In developing this proposal, we were guided by the following basic principles of accountability, integration, and inclusivity:
- Standards must be bargained by a democratically accountable bargaining agent on behalf of workers in a sector, and by a representative organization of employers on behalf of all employers in the sector.
- This new regime should not interfere with existing collective bargaining regimes; it should serve as a floor from which traditionally certified unions can bargain a full collective agreement and potentially superior collective agreement terms.
- This new regime should apply to all workers in an employment relationship – including dependent contractors and gig and platform workers, however defined.
What we propose is a system for sectoral bargaining which will operate in parallel with existing collective bargaining and minimum standards legislation, and which will support and complement – not compete with – existing and future collective bargaining rights.
If you want to know more, The Centre for Future Work will be hosting a webinar on our proposal featuring myself and professor Slinn, with comments from Brad James (former Steelworkers organizer, Ontario), Patrice Jalette (Université de Montréal, Quebec) and Kendra Strauss (Simon Fraser University, BC). The online event will take place on November 28, 2022 at 1:30 P.M. Eastern Time. You can register for the event here.
*The Slinn/Rowlinson paper emanates from numerous discussions of a working group consisting of Simon Archer, Steven Barrett, Josh Mandryk and Ethan Poskanzer from Goldblatt Partners, as well as Chris Roberts from the Canadian Labour Congress