Employee rights sites.

• Author: Mireau, Shaunna

One question employees often have is "Can my boss do that?" In Alberta, the legislation that governs what employers can and cannot do is the Employment Standards Code. This piece of legislation includes topics such as payment of earnings, minimum wage, hours of work, rest periods and days of rest, overtime and overtime pay, vacations and vacation pay, general holidays and general holiday pay, maternity and parental leave, termination of employment, and employment of individuals under 18 years of age.

Human Resources and Employment is the Alberta Government department responsible for this act. They have a wonderful website that discusses employment standards. The site www3.gov.ab.ca/hre/employmentstandards/in dex.html has fact sheets, found under the Publications and Statistics link, which are an excellent source of basic information regarding employer duties. The website also contains a link to the text of the Employment Standards Code. The Code is also available from the Alberta Queen's Printer website www.qp.gov.ab.ca which has the public laws and regulations for Alberta.

The Employment Standards Code relates to non-union employees. Unionized workers in Alberta are protected by the Labour Relations Code. This piece of legislation sets out the rights of employees and employers in section 19:

Rights of employees and employers

(1) An employee has the right

(a) to be a member of a trade union and to participate in its lawful activities, and

(b) to bargain collectively with his employer through a bargaining agent.

(2) An employer has the right

(a) to be a member of an employers' organization and to participate in its lawful activities,

(b) to bargain collectively with his employees, and to conduct collective bargaining through an employers' organization.

This legislation is also available from both the Queen's Printer site and the Human Resources and Employment homepage www3.gov.ab.ca/hre/labourrelations/ index.html under the Supporting a Stable Labour Relations Climate link. Who names these websites anyway? That is a question for a future column!

The Alberta Labour Relations Board is the body responsible for the day-to-day application and interpretation of Alberta's labour laws. It is the organization that mediates labour disputes and processes the applications for union organization in the province. The Board is given its mandate and powers by the Labour Relations Code.

The Alberta Labour Relations Board has an excellent website devoted to...