Labour Relations

• Author: Netta Romano
• Pages: 483-546

483

Labour Relations

13

Learning Outcomes

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Identify the purpose and application of the Ontario

Labour Relations Act, 1995.

• Discuss how bargaining rights are established in Ontario

workplaces.

• Identify the process for negotiating a collective agree-

ment and standard terms contained in collective

agreements.

• Identify unfair labour practices.

• Describe the process of decertification.

• Identify differences between private sector labour rela-

tions and public sector labour relations

• Outline the jurisdiction, practice, and procedures of the

Ontario Labour Relations Board

• Identify the enforcement provisions in the Labour Rela-

tions Act, 1995.

Introduction ........................... 484

Purpose and Application of the Labour

RelationsAct, 1995 .................. 486

Establishing Bargaining Rights in Ontario

Workplaces ........................ 488

Collective Agreements ................... 490

Unfair Practices ........................ 495

Decertification ......................... 498

Public Sector Labour Relations ............ 499

Ontario Labour Relations Board: Jurisdiction,

Practice, and Procedure .............. 501

Enforcement ........................... 510

Further Reading ........................ 511

Related Websites ....................... 511

Key Terms ............................. 511

Review Questions ...................... 511

Discussion Questions .................... 512

Appendix 13.1 Ontario Labour Relations

Board Form A-103, Application for

Review, Employment Standards Act,

2000, Protecting Child Performers

Act, 2015 .......................... 513

Appendix 13.2 Ontario Labour Relations

Board Information Bulletin No 24 ...... 523

Appendix 13.3 Ontario Labour Relations

Board Form A-65, Appeal of

Inspector’s Order: Occupational

Health and Safety Act, Protecting

Child Performers Act, 2015 ............ 532

Appendix 13.4 Ontario Labour Relations

Board, Information Bulletin No 21,

Occupational Health and Safety Act,

Appeals of an Inspector’s Order ........ 541

© 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.

484 EMPLOYMENT LAW FOR PARALEGALS

Introduction

This book has focused primarily on the employment relationship between employer

and employee in a non-unionized work environment, where the worker is left to their

own devices to negotiate the terms of employment and resolve disputes that may arise

in the workplace. Government regulation in the form of the Employment Standards

Act, 2000 1—and other protections provided in the Ontario Human Rights Code,

2

Occupational Health and Safety Act,

3 and Workplace Safety and Insurance Act,

1997 4— help balance the unequal bargaining power between employee and employer

to some extent. The addition of a union in the relationship signicantly boosts the

negotiating power of workers. Through the process of collective bargaining, workers

join together to negotiate favourable terms of employment—wages, working condi-

tions, benets, job security—that the lone worker must attempt to secure on their

own.

Collective bargaining was considered an activity in restraint of trade, and thus a

criminal offence, until 1872. In that year, printers of the Toronto Typographical Union

walked off the job following their employer’s refusal of a nine-hour workday. Pub-

lishers hired replacement workers, but the strike gained the support of other workers,

resulting in 10,000 supporters attending a rally at Queen’s Park in Toronto on April 15,

1872.

5 George Brown, the editor of the Toronto Globe, had 24 members of the strike

committee arrested for conspiracy.

6 Prime Minister John A MacDonald introduced the

Trade Union Act on April 18, 1872, which legalized and protected unions.

7

The next signicant event in labour relations history was the Winnipeg General

Strike of 1919, which was the result of high unemployment rates, ination, and social

tension following the end of the First World War. Labour unrest saw some 30,000

workers from a variety of professions in both the public and the private sectors walk

off the job.

8 The strike ended when union busters hired by the Royal North-West

Mounted Police red into a crowd of thousands of workers, killing two and injuring

many others. It has been suggested that the Winnipeg General Strike “set the stage for

future labour reforms.”

9

Ontario passed its rst labour relations legislation in 1943: the Collective Bargaining

Act,

10 which was in effect for only six months. It was quickly displaced by the federal

Wartime Labour Relations Regulations, created by Order in Council PC 1003. The

federal regulations were introduced in early 1944 under the War Measures Act

11 and

1 SO 2000, c 41 [ESA].

2 RSO 1990, c H.19 [the Code].

3 RSO 1990, c O.1 [OHSA].

4 SO 1997, c 16, Schedule A [WSIA].

5 “History of Labo ur in Canada” (24 February 2015), online: Canadian Labour Congress <https://canadianlabour

.ca/uncategorized/why-unions-history-labour-canada>.

6 Pattie Phillips, “Hig hlights in Canadian Labour Histo ry,” CBC News (4 September 2009), online: <http: //www

.cbc.ca/news/canada/highlights-in-canadian-labour-history-1.850282>.

7 Supra note 5.

8 Supra note 6.

9 Supra note 5 at para 10.

107 Geo VI (O), c 4 [CBA].

115 Geo V (O), c 2 (1914).

© 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.

CHAPTER 13 LABOUR RELATIONS 485

established a national system of labour relations law.

12 They contained a comprehen-

sive framework for recognizing unions, including:

• the right of workers to join a union;

• the recognition of the union as exclusive bargaining agent upon certication;

• the obligation to bargain in good faith;

• the requirement to participate in conciliation before a strike or lockout; and

• the prohibition of strikes or lockouts during the term of a collective agreement.

13

After the end of the Second World War, responsibility for labour and employment

law reverted back to the provinces. In 1950, Ontario enacted the Labour Relations Act,

modelled on Order in Council PC 1003. As happens with legislation, the Act was

amended from time to time over the years and underwent major revisions in 1993

(under the New Democratic Party government), in 1995 (under the Progressive Conserv-

ative government), and in 2005 and 2017 (under the Liberal government).

14 In October

2018, the Ontario Progressive Conservative government introduced Bill 47, the Making

Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018,

15 making signicant amendments to the Labour

Relations Act, 1995.

The rate of unionization in Canada increased rapidly following the end of the Second

World War, dropping off gradually from a peak in the early 1980s.

16 Statistics Canada

reports that in 2020, approximately 31 percent of all workers across Canada were cov-

ered by a collective agreement. Seventy-eight percent of all public sector workers across

Canada are covered by a union, an increase from 74.6 percent in 1997, whereas only

16percent of private sector workers enjoy the same coverage, a decline from just

over20 percent in 1997.

17

With that very basic background into the history of labour relations, we turn to look

at the current Ontario Labour Relations Act, 1995

18 and the role of the Ontario Labour

Relations Board (OLRB) in encouraging “harmonious relations between employers,

employees and trade unions by dealing with matters before it as expeditiously and as

fairly as reasonably possible.”

19

12Supra note 6.

13“Legislative Histor y of the Labour Relations Ac t” (27 July 2016), online: Ontario Ministry of Labour <ht tps://www

.labour.gov.on.ca/english/about/cwr_interim/chapter_4_1.php>.

14Ibid.

15SO 2018, c 14 – Bill 47.

16David J Doorey & Alison Braley -Rattai, Canadian Labou r Relations: Law, Policy, and Practice, 2nd e d (Toronto:

Emond, 2020) at xxi.

17Statistics Canada, Table14-10-0070- 01, Union Coverage by Industry, Annual (x 1,000 ), (last modied 31 July

2021), online: <https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410007001>.

18SO 1995, c 1, Schedule A [LRA].

19“The Board and Its Histo ry” (last visited 9 July 2021), online: Ontario Labour Relations Board <http://ww w.olrb

.gov.on.ca/History-EN.asp>.

bargaining agent

the trade union that is

authorized to represent a

group of employees and

bargain on their behalf

with an employer

strike

a refusal to work by a group

of unionized employees

following the expir y of a

collective agreement or

a failure to reach a first

collective agreement, typically

while the employer and union

are attempting to negotiate

a new collective agreement

lockout

an employer’s refusal to let

unionized employees into

the workplace following

the expiry of a collec tive

agreement or a failure

to reach a first collec tive

agreement, typically while

the employer and union are

attempting to negot iate a

new collective agreement

© 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.