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Hours of Work: Standard hours are 8 in a day and 40 in a week, with maximum hours of 48. At least one and one-half times the regular rate of pay must be paid for hours worked in excess of standard hours.

Minimum Wage: Minimum wage rates are set, subject to revision from time to time by order-in-council.

Equal Wages: Employers are required to pay equal wages for work of equal value within the meaning of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Annual Vacations: An employee is entitled to at least 2 weeks vacation annually with vacation pay of not less than 4 per cent of gross earnings. After 6 consecutive years of employment with one employer, an employee is entitled to 3 weeks vacation with pay equivalent to 6 per cent of gross earnings.

General Holidays: Employees are entitled to nine holidays with pay each year: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.

Maternity-Related Reassignment and Leave, Parental Leave: The Code provides that an employee who is pregnant or nursing may request that the employer temporarily modify her job duties or reassign her to another job, where reasonably practicable; or an employee who has worked for the same employer for at least 6 months is entitled to up to 17 weeks of maternity leave. An additional leave of up to 24 weeks between the two parents is available to a natural or adoptive parent who has been employed by the same employer for at least 6 months and have or will has care and custody of a child.

Bereavement Leave: All employees are entitled to bereavement leave on any of the three days immediately following the death of a member of their immediate family. Employees with three or more months of service are entitled to be paid for such leave days.

Group Termination of Employment: If an employer intends to terminate the employment of 50 or more employees in an industrial establishment within any 4-week period, at least 16 weeks advance notice must be given in writing to the Minister of Labour, Minister of Human Resources Development, the Canada Employment Commission, any affected employee, and any trade union recognized as the bargaining agent for the affected employees. Moreover, the employer must establish a joint committee with at least half of its members representing affected employees for the purpose of developing an adjustment program to eliminate the need for the termination of employment or to minimize the impact of the termination on affected workers.

Individual Termination of Employment: Provided the employee has at least 3 consecutive months of service, employers are required to give individual employees two weeks written notice of termination, or two weeks pay in lieu of notice, except where the employee is dismissed for just cause.

Severance Pay: Employees with at least 12 consecutive months of service are entitled to severance pay on termination, except in case of dismissal for just cause. The amount of entitlement is the greater of two days pay for each completed year of service or five days pay.

Garnishment of Wages: An employee may not be disciplined because garnishment proceedings may be or have been taken against him or her.

Sick Leave: An employee who has 3 or more months of continuous employment may not be disciplined, demoted, laid off, suspended, or dismissed because of absence due to illness or injury, provided the absence does not exceed 12 weeks and the employee, if requested in writing by the employer, provides the employer with a doctor's certificate certifying that the employee was not able to work during that period.

Work-Related Illness or Injury: Employees are protected from dismissal, suspension, lay-off, demotion, or discipline because of absence from work due to work-related illness or injury. During such absences, employees are entitled to wage replacement, payable at an equivalent rate to that provided for under applicable workers' compensation legislation in the employee's province of permanent residence.

Unjust Dismissal: After 12 consecutive months of employment, employees who are not managers nor subject to a collective agreement and believe they have been unjustly dismissed may lodge a written complaint of unjust dismissal with the Labour Program. The complaint must be lodged no later than 90 days from the date of the dismissal. Labour Affairs Officers will attempt to arrange a mutually satisfactory solution to the dispute.

Payment of Wages: Employers are required to pay employees on the regular pay-day as established by the employer's practice and to pay any wages or other amounts such as overtime pay, holiday pay, severance pay, or bereavement pay within 30 days of entitlement.

Deductions From Wages: Employers may not make deductions from wages or other amounts due to an employee unless the deduction is required by federal or provincial law, authorized by a court order or collective agreement, or where the deduction is related to amounts authorized in writing by an employee, or an overpayment of wages by the employer.

Sexual Harassment: The Code requires employers to develop and post a policy of sexual harassment.

A particular concern of LAOs with respect to enforcement was the need to review the procedure for enforcing payment orders and consideration should be given to the establishment of a system of fines and tickets as an alternative to prosecution.

Cooperative Approaches: Cooperative strategies with the Provinces and industry associations for the delivery of some of the services associated with the Code deserve more attention by the Department. This report underlines the importance of improved education and information dissemination, and that this could be consistent with new arrangements with the Provinces and with a much higher level of proactive intervention.

At the same time, the evaluation team shares the views of most stakeholders that privatization of the enforcement function of the program would not work, and would in the final analysis be to the detriment of attaining the important objectives of labour standards. Other alternative approaches should be considered for First Nations, for example, delivery of services through Tribal Councils, and a wide range of related issues should be examined for First Nations, including cultural training for LAOs. Self-regulation through mechanisms such as joint committees should be facilitated, but does not appear to be a high-priority approach to improve program delivery.

New Approaches To Non-Standard Work: Non-standard employment is the fastest growing part of the Canadian labour market. It is widely recognized that Federal and Provincial labour standards are not addressing the needs of this segment of the labour force. The Federal Government should take some leadership with the provinces in this particular area and on the perceived policy gaps which are emerging. The essence of the question is how to extend labour standard protections to non-standard workers who are in every sense really "dependent contractors". A proactive education program with stakeholders is part of the answer.

Consider Eliminating the Long Hours Permits: Finally, the researchers offer one specific suggestion relating to the subject of hours of work. The hours of work provisions of the Code involve a complex system of permits which are resented by employers and at the same time, are not heavily utilized if the evidence from other jurisdictions is relevant. That being the case, other avenues could be explored for governing long hours of work.

One useful option to consider is a complete elimination of the overtime permit system, but the introduction of two other provisions (guaranteeing the right to refuse overtime together with the option of taking time off in lieu of overtime rather than overtime pay) as an alternate means of limiting unusually long hours of work. This direction would be seen by firms as offering them more flexibility and by employees of empowering them relating to their rights to refuse to work overtime hours. Another option would be to impose a second rate (significantly higher) of overtime premium when workers work more than the current ceiling on hours of work .⁸⁸

6.2 Discussion of a Second Phase Evaluation

This evaluation report does not cover all of the important avenues of inquiry of interest in the Part III program. As is common with reports of this nature, other issues and avenues for useful public policy exploration have emerged which are central to the Labour Program's mandate and Part III of the Code. Some such issues are identified here, for a possible second phase of the evaluation which could build on important learning which has occurred in the initial research for the evaluation.

Related issues which could be considered in a second phase of work include:

1. A Review of Best Practices To Obtain Compliance: HRDC could review best practices (i.e. objectives and the achievement of these objectives) in a variety of jurisdictions. An inter-jurisdictional survey (Canada and international) could focus on the question of the degree to which standards have affected competitiveness, efficiency and equity in other jurisdictions/countries.
   
   What can be learned from other jurisdictions about improving compliance with labour standards? Are there any new levers for achieving labour standards objectives? A model for this type of study could be found in the survey of international practices conducted for the Department's 1996 Evaluation of the Canada Pension Plan (Disability Component).
   
   The research could examine what other measures, other than labour standards, could be used to achieve these same objectives. The tax literature might also represent a useful area for examining these issues.

 

2. How is the Code Adapting To the New World Of Work? The report suggested that the Code appears to be "falling behind" changes in the labour market. The changing environment of work clearly has important implications for equity, private efficiency, and with compliance with the objectives of the Code. In the emerging new environment, what is the role for labour standards? What do we do if labour standards cannot reach these newer groups of workers? Should the Code be used to enhance their bargaining power?
   
   There have been very major changes in labour market activity. The supply side changes include demographic shifts, changes in labour force participation, technology and education changes; while the demand side changes include contracting out, changing attitudes by firms regarding hiring of labour, the rapid growth of smaller firms, and the faster increase in the provision of services than the provision of goods. What are the implications of these changes for compliance with objectives of labour standards?
   
   A case study of the trucking industry — with its wide use of alternative work provisions — seems particularly attractive as an approach to these issues.

 

3. Other Equity/Efficiency Issues: HRDC has a significant interest in ensuring that Canada's labour market operates as efficiently and as equitably as possible. But these two worthwhile objectives — efficiency and equity — are often inconsistent with each other. The administration of the Code, in other words, reflects this dynamic tension: key issues to be considered should include the full range of issues such as between jurisdiction harmonization, consideration of internal labour markets of firms as well as broader labour markets, and consistency with international agreements and labour accords (e.g. NAFTA).

 

4. Employee Concerns: The second phase of this evaluation should include a survey of complainants to obtain a better perspective of employees with regards to labour standards and the Labour Program. This area represents a major gap in the evaluation so far, and one which could be usefully filled in a second phase of the evaluation. Development of a study component will be particularly challenging because of the confidentiality issues which surround the complaint process.

 

5. Examination of Costs and International Competitiveness: Part of an expanded work plan should relate to international competitiveness. The responses of the larger, export oriented firms which apparently comply with the Code noted modest costs, but nevertheless expressed the view that the Code may be inhibiting their international competitiveness.
   
   Indeed, labour and environmental standards have in fact increased the awareness level of firms, employees and unions. One reason for this is that the internationalization of business has also resulted in a comparable internationalization of the Canadian labour force.
   
   To meet this concern, the second phase of the evaluation should focus on a number of macroeconomic and international issues not fully dealt with in the first phase of our work. One of the key gaps in our view relates to the linkage of labour standards to the competitiveness and global competition of Canadian firms. This may be of particular interest in the case of the international shipping of grain, where high concerns and higher costs were noted.
   
   Such a sub-study could be a case study of costs and impacts on the grain industry and other sectors, possibly with case studies, with a survey of employers' detailed views of costs (see Technical Note #1 - Planning Report, November 1997), or with a more exact examination of costs and specific Part III provisions (econometric analysis).