Introduction

• Author: Timothy Hadwen - David Strang - Leonard Marvy - Don Eady
• Profession: Director, Legal Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of Labour - Associate Director, Management Board Secretariat - Solicitor, Ontario Labour Relations Board - Partner, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP
• Pages: 1-7

Introduion

Governments choose the leg islation and policies t hat regulate the relat ionship

between the government as employer and its own employees. G overnments can

choose to treat their employees the s ame way as private sector employees are

treated, by allowi ng the employment relationship between t he government and

its employees to be subject to generally appl icable labour and employment laws.

Alternat ively, governments can a ssert their “sovere ignty” by choosi ng to exempt

themselves from labour and employment laws. Additionally, governments can

tailor legislat ion to create a unique employment relationship. e last route has

been chosen by the province of Ontario. e province has enacted t wo statutes,

the Public Service Act (PSA), and the Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act

(CECBA), and modied other acts, to produce a unique employment and labou r

relations regime. e goal wa s a provincial government workforce that be tter

serves t he people of Ontar io. Specically, it was thought important to have leg-

islative limits on the shor t-term wishes of al l directly concerned — the politica l

party in power, the managers re sponsible for government administration, a nd

government employees . Instead of having t he rights of a private se ctor employer,

the government of the day is held to special st andards. Similarly, instead of hav-

ing the same entitlements as pr ivate sector employees, government workers have

been given some added responsibilities .

e core justication for these pa rticular stat utory requirements is the main-

tenance of the public serv ice and “essential” public ser vices. e public service is

one of the bulwarks of Ontario soc iety, and an indispensa ble part of democratic

government. Political par ties in power, and public service managers, should not

 At the federal leve l, then-Prime Minist er Lester Pearson said of publ ic service labour

legislation t hat it must “take care to preser ve the capacity of the publ ic service to func-

tion eciently i n serving the people of C anada”: House of Commons Debates, (Apri l ,

), Vol. IV at .

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