Two components of Bill 85 have been the subject of court battles for the past few years, as unions questioned the legality of both essential services legislation and the Trade Union Amendment Act. Unions have said they may appeal a Saskatchewan Court of Appeal decision upholding those laws to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Unions have also criticized the speed with which Bill 85 has moved through the legislature, as well as the number and content of regulations yet to be written.
Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union (SGEU) president Bob Bymoen has said the new legislation will make it more difficult for workers to form a union, and will erode weekends and standard hours of work.
“There is no substantial improvement for workers’ rights in this bill,” Bymoen has said.
Essential services legislation, which spells out which workers are so needed that they cannot strike, is not included in the Saskatchewan Employment Act.
The Opposition NDP had asked for the government to delay pushing the bill through until further consultation can be done this summer on essential services legislation, which is likely to undergo several amendments.
The government has said there is “placeholder” legislation in the bill while it does more work on the essential services component. That move is to prevent the discussions from holding up other benefits within the new labour law, Minister Don Morgan has said.
The new laws have been crafted with a “huge” amount of consultation, Morgan said. He has insisted the government intended to pass the bill this spring.
Morgan says essential services will be added to the act in the fall.
“The new act includes house amendments that are the result of our consultative process. As a result, we now have an even better Act that is fair to employees, employers and unions,” said Morgan.
House amendments to the bill since it was first revealed include:
Creating three additional leaves (in addition to the two created in the original act for organ donation and to attend a citizenship ceremony) for critically ill childcare leave, crime-related child death and disappearance leaves, and waiving of the four-week notice requirement;
Providing part-time employees with overtime for all hours worked in excess of eight hours in a day. This is in recognition that part-time workers do not enjoy the benefits of a modified work arrangement;
Clarifying that employees are entitled to overtime where the daily maximum hours established by their work schedule are exceeded. The two schedules provided for in the legislation include hours in excess of eight hours in a day or 10 hours in a day;
Adding the definition of “emergency circumstance” to mean a situation where there is an imminent risk or danger to a person, property or the employer’s business that could not have been foreseen by the employer;
Requiring employees to provide two weeks written notice of their intention to leave their jobs;
Clarifying of the definition of “employee” to make it clear that employees whose primary duties are confidential in nature and directly impact the bargaining unit cannot belong to a union;
Amending the definition of “supervisory employee” to clarify that the primary duties are to be supervisory in nature;
Requiring that good faith negotiations occur prior to ordering a last offer vote;
Requiring unions to provide an audited financial statement to its members and provide unaudited financial statements for each bargaining unit to the members of the unit, as well as allowing the unions to provide this information in various means including electronically, posted in the workplace, mailed to the employee, personally given to the employee or provided on a secure website.
The act also contains provisions that include:
Indexing the minimum wage;
Protecting individuals searching for work from mistreatment and fraud perpetrated by unscrupulous recruitment service providers;
While maintaining the 40-hour work week, permitting two work arrangements — eight hours per day for five days per week or 10 hours per day for four days per week;
Reducing the qualification period for maternity, parental and adoption leave from 20 weeks to 13 weeks of service;
Recognizing that no individual or group may be compensated differently on the grounds of any prohibition identified within The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.
Original Article
Source: thestarphoenix.com
Author: Joe Couture
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