Treasury Board President Scott Brison said Friday he is sticking to his plan to review rather than repeal Bill C-4, the contentious Tory legislation that completely changed the ground rules for collective bargaining in the public service.
“We will undertake a full review of Bill C-4,” he said. “This is something we take seriously and we will work with stakeholders, including unions, to review C-4.”
With a review underway, Brison refused to discuss repealing the legislation.
That’s not what the unions wanted to hear. This week, union leaders asked the government to immediately repeal the legislation and bring back the rules that previously governed bargaining.
The 18 unions signed a solidarity pact more than a year ago over the contentious issue of sick leave and disability management. They have presented a united front in refusing to make any concessions.
“We are in strong disagreement with your proposal to revisit Bill C-4 through consultations with ‘public sector partners,'” they wrote in a joint letter.
“We urge you to put things back as they were so that our unions and the Treasury Board Secretariat can move forward for the benefit of the public service and Canadians.”
The letter gave no indication whether unions would participate in Brison’s proposed consultations or not.
The letter comes as the biggest union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, is poised for its first bargaining session with the Liberals on Monday.
So far, unions haven’t refused to bargain with C-4’s provisions in force, but some labour leaders have said they didn’t think they could complete a deal under the legislation.
Despite Brison’s refusal to repeal C-4, the Liberals have taken some significant steps to rebuild labour relations after a decade of acrimony between the unions and the Conservatives. This week, the government introduced legislation to repeal two anti-labour bills – one that affected the way unions certify and decertify, and another that forced unions to open their books to scrutiny.
Brison has also promised to repeal Tory-era legislation that gave the government power to unilaterally impose a new sick-leave regime, as one of his “first orders of business.”
The repeal of this bill, C-59, would lift a major threat hanging over bogged-down contract talks on sick-leave reforms. With the promise, the union abandoned the injunction it was seeking to stop C-59 until the courts heard its constitutional challenge of the legislation.
Brison said the repeal of C-59 sets the tone for the government’s commitment to rebuilding labour relations and restoring respect for the public service. “We are being respectful and engaged and will be during this process,” he said.
C-59 gave the Conservatives the power to override contracts and impose a sick-leave deal that eliminated public servants’ sick-leave banks. The government hoped to save $1.5 billion over five years.
The unions argue that C-4 is unconstitutional, stacks the deck in the government’s favour and undermines fair collective bargaining. They have challenged the constitutionality of the law with a first hearing scheduled for the summer.
The unions were buoyed by a Supreme Court of Canada ruling last year that profoundly changed the landscape for labour rights and collective bargaining. The court granted an appeal by the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour of the province’s controversial essential-services law, which limited which workers could strike.
The Conservatives changes in Bill C-4 are almost identical to the Saskatchewan legislation – especially the provisions on essential services. The unions had hoped the Liberals would repeal the look-alike legislation rather than follow the Conservatives hard-line course to fight the unions’ constitutional challenge of C-4.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: Kathryn May
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