EMPLOYMENT | Enhanced Job Security for Federal Workers.

• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Bowal, Peter

September 4, 2020By Peter Bowaland Curtis Birch-Lucas

It is an outcome that is anchored in parliamentary intention, statutory language, arbitral jurisprudence, and labour relations practice. To decide otherwise would fundamentally undermine Parliament's remedial purpose. --Wilson v Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., 2016 SCC 29 at para 69 Employment security is something every worker is concerned about, especially during a pandemic. It is generally accepted that unionized workers enjoy more security than their non-unionized counterparts do. And public sector workers are better protected than private sector workers are.

The federal government regulates only about 6% of all Canadian employees. They may be directly working for the federal government or in one of the federally regulated industries such as telecommunications, shipping, aeronautics, railroads, banking and atomic energy.

Most of these federally regulated employees are unionized. But some workers in banks, telecommunications companies, airlines, Crown corporations and other federally controlled employers are non-unionized. In 1978, Parliament amended Part III of the Canada Labour Code to add ss. 240 to 246about "unjust dismissal." These amendments granted unionized federal workers the right to written reasons for...