Letter to the Minister of Labour

Your role

Your responsibilities as Minister of Labour fall under 7 main areas: labour relations, occupational health and safety, labour standards, employment equity and pay equity, the Wage Earner Protection Program, workers’ compensation for government employees, and, finally, intergovernmental and international labour affairs.

For most of these areas, you are responsible for developing and applying the rules (set out in legislation and regulations) that apply to employers and employees who, under Canada’s Constitution, fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, such as railways, airlines and airport authorities, ports, interprovincial and international bridges and ferries, interprovincial and international trucking and bus transport, banks, telecommunications and broadcasting, postal and courier services, most Crown corporations, grain handling and some employees on First Nations reserves engaged in administration and governance activities.

Your key labour relations responsibility is in the area of dispute prevention and resolution, including both the provision of preventive mediation services to employers and unions as well as conciliation and mediation during collective bargaining. The vast majority of collective agreements in the federal jurisdiction are negotiated without a work stoppage, either directly by the parties themselves or with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. However, over the course of your mandate, you are likely to become involved in a few potential strikes or lockouts of national significance. If and when these arise, we will provide you with advice and options to support your engagement with the parties. In the area of labour relations, a number of issues requiring adjudication, such as overseeing the process of union certification, the consideration of unfair labour practices complaints, hearing complaints from union members about their unions, and so on, are dealt with by an independent tribunal, the Canada Industrial Relations Board. As such, these do not involve you directly.

Your second key responsibility is to ensure that employees in the federal jurisdiction work in healthy and safe environments. A key feature of occupational health and safety is the joint responsibility system in which employers and employees are expected to work together collaboratively to create safe and healthy working conditions. The Labour Program’s approximately 90 health and safety inspectors, who work out of offices across the country, provide vital services such as educating the parties and resolving disputes between them, for example when an employee invokes their right to refuse to work if they believe they are facing an imminent danger. In addition to acting generally as an advocate for healthy and safe workplaces, you can expect to be faced with decisions about whether to prosecute employers in cases of flagrant breaches of the law.

A third area of responsibility that falls to the federal Labour Minister is minimum labour standards. These standards set a floor of rights for all federally regulated employees with respect to minimum wages and the payment of wages, hours of work and scheduling, termination of employment, eligibility for a variety of paid and unpaid leaves, and vacations and holidays. The day-to-day work of educating employers and workers about these rights and receiving and dealing with complaints is handled by the approximately 100 labour affairs officers working in our network of regional offices. Your involvement in this field will be focused on providing direction on the development of labour standards that will reflect the changing nature of work while balancing the needs of employers and employees.

Fourth, you are responsible for promoting more equitable workplaces. Employment Equity which, through the Employment Equity Act, seeks to eliminate barriers and correct the conditions of disadvantage in employment experienced by women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities. Pay transparency is a new employment equity initiative aimed at promoting awareness of pay gaps affecting these 4 designated groups. It will provide Canadians with user-friendly, comparable online information about pay gaps among federally regulated employers. Finally, the Pay Equity Act, which came into force on August 31, 2021, is targeted at eliminating pay differences that are rooted in the systematic undervaluing of jobs that have traditionally been seen as “women’s work.” Your role, as designated Minister, is to monitor the results and effectiveness of the Act while the Pay Equity Commissioner, supported by a division within the Canadian Human Rights Commission, is responsible for administering and enforcing the Act.

The fifth area of your responsibility as Minister of Labour is a unique federal program known as the Wage Earner Protection Program. This program provides a quick payment (up to a specified maximum) to workers whose employer has gone bankrupt but has not paid the wages, vacation time, severance or termination pay those workers were owed. This allows them to avoid “standing in line” in bankruptcy proceedings that can take years and that treat workers’ claims as secondary to those of other creditors. The program is administered by Service Canada and applies to all Canadian workers, whether they work in federally or provincially regulated workplaces. The COVID-19 pandemic and changes in corporate insolvency practices have exposed some gaps in this program. The Labour Program is currently exploring a number of areas to fill the gaps while ensuring that the program objectives of providing timely payments and recovering debts are achieved.

The sixth responsibility you have as Minister of Labour is workers’ compensation. There is no federal workers’ compensation board. Instead, when one of their employees is injured or becomes ill on the job, federally regulated private-sector firms are required to provide compensation that is comparable to the provincial benefits provided in the province where the employee works. For public-sector federal workers, such as the federal public service and Crown corporations, we have arrangements with the provincial workers’ compensation boards whereby they handle all cases for our employees and we reimburse all of their costs along with an administrative fee.

The seventh and last general area of responsibility is international and intergovernmental labour affairs. As the federal Minister of Labour, your international responsibilities fall into 2 categories: managing Canada’s participation in multilateral bodies, such as the International Labour Organization, that focus primarily on labour issues; and leading the negotiation of labour protections in free trade agreements. In both of these areas, Canada has long had a very active agenda and you will be involved in decisions about whether to ratify international conventions and the stance of Canada in free trade negotiations. Pursuant to obligations under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement labour chapter, Canada has banned the importation of goods produced by forced labour since July 2020. While the responsibility for enforcing the ban rests with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Labour Program is collaborating with CBSA to operationalize the ban by providing research and analysis on the risk of forced labour for specific complaints or allegations. On the intergovernmental side, the relationship between the federal government and the provinces and territories has traditionally been highly collaborative. As there are no fiscal transfer programs or significant questions about jurisdiction in the area of labour, Ministers of Labour focus on building consensus on issues of common concern and fostering cooperation across jurisdictions. As the federal Minister of Labour, your active participation in the annual meeting of Ministers is key to ensuring vibrant and forward-looking discussions.

Recent policy changes

While supporting workers and employers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic took precedence over many other priorities, important changes have been made to federal labour policy over the past 2 years. Below is a summary of these recent developments.

• In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary legislative and regulatory changes were adopted on an urgent basis to support employees and employers. These include a new leave for employees unable to work for reasons related to COVID-19, a waiver of the requirement to provide a medical certificate for certain leaves and an extension of the allowable time period that employees can be laid off before their employment is deemed terminated.
• The Pay Equity Act was brought into force on August 31, 2021, and introduced a proactive approach that requires federally regulated private and public sector employers with 10 or more employees to examine their compensation practices and make necessary adjustments to ensure that their employees receive equal pay for work of equal value.
• Over the last year, Parliament, with all-party support, passed legislation to add the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a new federal statutory holiday that first took place on September 30, 2021. Parliament also approved other changes to federal labour standards, including the introduction of a $15 federal minimum wage, the extension of medical leave from 17 to 27 weeks, the enhancement of a leave related to the death or disappearance of a child, and extended the maximum length of bereavement leave. The changes to minimum wage will come into force on December 29, 2021 and extended medical leave will come into force through an Order in Council at the same time as the corresponding changes to Employment Insurance (EI) sickness benefits.
• The Government implemented new pay transparency measures to identify wage gaps in federally regulated workplaces and Parliament amended the Employment Equity Act and the Employment Equity Regulations to enable this. These changes came into effect on January 1, 2021 and will be first reported on by approximately 575 employers in June 2022.
• In addition, legislation and regulations making workplace harassment and violence a health and safety issue came into force on January 1, 2021. This measure also applies to employees on Parliament Hill and ministers’ offices.
• Funding for the Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity (WORBE) grants and contributions program was increased from $500,000 to $2 million in fiscal year 2021 to 2022 and beginning in fiscal year 2022 to 2023, funding of $3 million will be made available per fiscal year. WORBE provides funding to projects aimed at increasing knowledge on employment barriers, improve representation of the 4 designated groups, or develop industry-specific tools and guides to address chronic underrepresentation within the federally regulated private sector.
• The Labour Program’s approach to compliance was overhauled by, for example, adding new enforcement tools such as compliance orders and administrative monetary penalties. Additionally, changes were introduced to designate and transfer most powers, authorities and duties from the Minister to the Head of Compliance and Enforcement to improve client service and consistency in program delivery.
• Further, Parliament passed legislative changes that protected the remuneration of employees in the air transportation sector working at airports, ensuring that they will not be paid less than they were under a previous collective agreement when a service contract is retendered.

Electoral commitments

Let me now turn to the commitments your party made during the recent election campaign.

The Labour Program has undertaken an initial analysis of your platform commitments. The reality of a minority government is such that you may have less time to implement your agenda and there is potential for shifting alliances in Parliament and an increased possibility that bills will be amended by opposition parties at the committee stage. It will be important to prioritize what you wish to accomplish in the near term, most notably as you identify your proposals for Budget 2022.

Given the commitment to “finish the fight against COVID-19”, we have developed several options for your consideration regarding how the Government can continue to work with employers in federally regulated workplaces to ensure vaccination is prioritized for workers in these sectors. The options complement newly introduced vaccination requirements for federal public servants, as well as those for certain employees in the federally regulated air, rail, and marine transportation sectors. These options can be presented during an early briefing. We are collaborating closely with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and Transport Canada on this commitment.

Your party has proposed to introduce amendments to the Canada Labour Code to provide 10 days of paid sick leave for all federally regulated workers. A commitment was also made to convene provinces and territories to develop a national action plan to legislate sick leave across the country, respecting jurisdictional boundaries as well as the unique needs of small business owners. We will brief you on options for implementing these commitments within the first 100 days as set out in your party’s platform.

Your party promised to make mental health an element of occupational health and safety and to work with federally regulated employers and labour groups to co-develop a “right to disconnect” policy. These platform commitments build on previous efforts to create labour protections that reflect today’s workplace realities, and we are ready to provide, for your consideration, options for how to move forward on these commitments.

Other platform commitments will require changes to the Canada Labour Code, including providing 5 days of paid leave in the event of miscarriage or stillbirth, strengthening protections for pregnant or breastfeeding employees, banning replacement workers during labour disputes and strengthening rights for workers employed by digital platforms. We will present you with recommendations for your consideration to move forward on each of these commitments. Previous consultations will help advance your party’s commitment to provide free menstrual products in federally regulated workplaces, and we are ready to move forward with more targeted consultations in the coming months. We will give you more details on our progress in a separate briefing.

Your party’s platform includes other commitments related to labour, but for which the lead rests with other Ministers, such as eradicating forced labour from Canadian supply chains, requiring diversity in corporate leadership at federally regulated financial institutions, providing adoptive parents an additional 15 weeks of leave, and introducing, within the first 100 days, the proposed An Act for the Substantive Equality of French and English and the Strengthening of the Official Languages Act. However, you will also be involved, as some may require changes to legislation under your purview or you may be expected to discuss these topics with your provincial and territorial counterparts.

The nature of work is changing in Canada. We will continue to examine possible legislative and regulatory changes to support employers and workers in light of the pandemic and in recognition of the fact that more workers are now working remotely.

Early decisions

As you will realize from the summary above, you will have a busy policy agenda in the coming months. In the short term, there are a number of time-sensitive decisions that will be put before you in the coming days and weeks. Among the most important are the following:

• how to continue working with employers in federally regulated workplaces to ensure COVID-19 vaccination is prioritized for workers in these sectors
• how to implement, within 100 days, the platform commitment to introduce 10 days of paid sick leave
• how to proceed with making mental health an element of occupational health and safety, and the path forward for working with employers and labour groups to co-develop a right to disconnect policy
• how to proceed with the review of the Employment Equity Act by a task force established in July 2021 to identify areas that may require modernization
• filling vacancies on various arms-length bodies for which you are responsible, including the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
• whether to sign the 2021 Pan Canadian Occupational Health and Safety Reconciliation Agreement

On each of these decisions, we will provide you and your team with background information, options and a verbal briefing where required.

Suggested outreach

One of the hallmarks of federal labour policy has been a strong commitment to seeking to build a balanced consensus among stakeholders on significant legislative and policy initiatives. This tradition of consultation and consensus-building has the advantage of improving legislative and regulatory changes, facilitating their adoption and making the subsequent implementation and administration of such changes smoother. More broadly, bringing stakeholders together for joint discussions, in both formal and informal settings, fosters a climate of stability and cooperation in labour relations that is appreciated by both employer and employee organizations in the federal jurisdiction.

For these reasons, I would suggest that in the coming days you make contact, either by telephone or a virtual meeting, with the leaders of the key stakeholder groups with whom you will be interacting during your mandate, including the Federally Regulated Employers – Transportation and Communication, the Canadian Bankers Association, the Canadian Labour Congress, Unifor, Teamsters Canada as well as large Quebec-based employer associations and unions. I would also suggest that you have introductory telephone or virtual calls with your provincial and territorial counterparts, as well as the President of the CCOHS, which is a federal departmental corporation, reporting to Parliament through you as the Minister of Labour. I will be available to support you during these meetings and calls and we will provide supporting materials.

You can count on my full support, as well as that of the entire staff of the Labour Program, in navigating the complexities of labour affairs, meeting the challenges of your mandate and implementing your priorities. We look forward to working with you.

Yours sincerely,

Sandra Hassan
Deputy Minister of Labour