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I. Introduction

The evaluation report summarized here presents the results of the second phase of an evaluation of Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Federal Labour Standards) conducted in 1997-98. The evaluation was designed and managed by Evaluation and Data Development (EDD), Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC). It was guided within HRDC by a joint EDD/Labour Program evaluation advisory committee. This study was conducted, under contract with EDD, by SPR Associates (Ottawa and Toronto).

II. Part III of the Canada Labour Code

The Canada Labour Code (hereafter the Code), through Part III, provides a regulatory framework for conditions of work (e.g., hours of work, treatment of overtime, conditions of dismissal, holidays, and related provisions). The Code applies in the federally regulated industrial sectors in Canada.

These sectors are generally those which are important to the national infrastructure, such as interprovincial and international trucking, shipping, and air transportation; communications; banking (federal banks¹); and selected other industrial sectors of importance to the Government of Canada, such as grain elevators, First Nations, and others. Part III defines conditions of work for over 700,000 Canadians in these sectors.

Other parts of the Code regulate labour relations (Part I) and occupational safety and health (OSH) (Part II) through the Labour Branch of the Department, with field implementation by Labour Affairs Officers (LAOs) located across Canada.

III. Evaluation Focus

This evaluation is part of a continuing investigation of Part III of the Code and its workings in relation to public-policy goals, legislation, and broader human-resource concerns of the federal government. Phase I of the evaluation focused on non-compliance with the Code.

Phase II's overall purpose was to gather information to identify considerations for the Labour Program, with a view to keeping Part III of the Code in tune with social change and the changing nature of work. This report assesses the implications for Part III of a variety of factors in the changing world of work (CWW) and non-standard work (NSW). NSW is defined as work other than traditional employment, where traditional employment is seen as a full-time, regular job, on a regular day, in a regular place of work. NSW includes part-time work, contract work, telework, at-home work, and non-standard work schedules (shift work, weekend work, etc.). This report also examines several other subtopics: federal labour standards as they affect First Nations in Canada; issues in Part II (occupational safety and health) and its possible linkup to Part III, as well as the potential need for a broader evaluation of Part II; issues in education, information, and compliance; and a possible third phase in the evaluation of Part III.

IV. Evaluation Methodology

The examination of issues related to the CWW and NSW was based on a broad-based review of the literature, a supplementary review of available international documents, interviews with various key stakeholders and experts in Canada (about 55) and abroad (about 10), and two major exploratory surveys of employers (over 440 in the federal sector and over 130 in provincially regulated sectors) and workers (over 465 federal, over 140 provincial). The subtopics were studied primarily by means of the selected key informant interviews and were supported by relevant information gathered for other aspects of the evaluation.

V. Key Findings

CWW and NSW as Key Issues in Today's Workplace

The review of the literature reaffirmed that NSW is a rapidly growing phenomenon in Canada and the world generally. The literature also points to widespread unmet demands for training in Canada's workplaces, suggesting that goals of enhancing life-long learning are insufficiently supported in Canada's workplaces. As well, as discussed in the Advisory Group On Working Time Report (pp. 18-22), Statistics Canada data strongly confirmed that there has been an expansion of long hours of work and a substantial amount of unpaid overtime for Canadian workers in recent years.

A variety of conclusions were drawn from the literature: that NSW has generally negative impacts on the quality of working life (and thus productivity); that NSW impacts negatively on worker security; and that the growing emergence of NSW is likely to be detrimental to life-long-learning goals, which are important to continued growth in social well-being, as well as economic productivity. The literature also suggests that long hours are associated with increased stress and insecurity within the employment relationship and have negative impacts on family life. With respect to NSW, there seems to be a strong view in the literature that the public-policy framework governing the self-employed should provide them with the same benefits as those usually accorded to full-time workers.

In spite of certain differences in goals and priorities, the literature suggests that many interests of the employers and employees (and unions) are mutual and that they should converge on common goals, such as the development of family-friendly workplace policies. This has been identified as a prominent concern in the literature, and can be seen in a recent major United States study of family life and work (The 1997 National Study of the Changing Workplace, Bond, James T., for the Families and Work Institute, 1998).

These observations suggest that improved family-friendly policies would be of benefit to Canada and thus a useful area for advancing labour standards.

Overall, key informants interviewed were virtually all of the view that the expansion of NSW was the foremost challenge for labour standards today and that because of the CWW, enforcement of labour standards is more difficult than in the past. This is also reflected in differences between employers and labour, in how these issues are approached. Employers, for example, generally view labour standards as more of a burden than a benefit in an environment requiring adapting flexibility to the CWW and competitive pressures. At the same time, the current environment appears to have made unions uncertain about how to best secure wage and benefit gains for their members or how to arrest the trend towards contracting out work and downsizing staff. Consequently, unions' interest in protecting labour standards appears to be even higher today than in the past, although the types of exact approaches to be taken may be unclear to unions because of the rapid rate of change in the CWW.

At the same time, some common concerns and shared priorities can be found among employer and union stakeholders (as is illustrated in the evaluation survey results). These common concerns were particularly evident in regard to such areas as life-long learning and family life. Employer and worker areas of common concern suggest that new approaches should be emphasized which focus more strongly on positive goals, such as learning, productivity, and harmony of work and family life. Such new strategies would not replace but could rather build on the traditional role of labour standards in providing a "floor" for conditions of work and basic protections for workers.

Many of these concerns were echoed in the international literature review and particularly in interviews with international contacts. The most important of these appears to be that pushing labour standards in the direction of stronger family-friendly policies and related initiatives is "on the table" and highly desirable in most of the countries contacted for this study. Overall, the international review provided a useful picture of CWW issues and how other jurisdictions are attempting to deal with these.

Employer and Worker Concerns: The surveys of workers and employers pointed the evaluation towards a number of important considerations, building upon what was found in the evaluation's interviews with stakeholders in business and organized labour. Most importantly:

• The survey results suggest that the CWW is a substantial factor in federally regulated sectors, with long hours of work being the one most significant aspect;
• CWW phenomena were found to be increasing in the federally regulated sectors; and
• CWW phenomena were found in various ways to affect both the federally and provincially regulated employment sectors, pointing to common concerns.

Important negative effects of CWW were noted, particularly by workers, as regards:

• reduced quality of work;
• reduced learning opportunities;
• higher levels of insecurity and harassment; and
• reduced quality of family life.

While a number of CWW factors were noted as impacting on these important aspects of work and life, long working hours and other work-schedule issues were noted by workers as the most important of the negative factors.

Key potential changes desired in Canada's workplaces were noted by both employers and workers. Types of changes noted as desirable by both employers and workers (albeit generally more so by workers) included:

• providing workers with the right to take time off in lieu of overtime (as a mechanism to aid the reduction of chronic overtime);
• better access to flextime;
• encouraging employers to provide skills training;
• more assistance for child care;
• improved health and safety in the workplace;
• assurance that employee benefits can be transferred to a new job or self-employment; and
• paid educational leave.

Additionally, some other areas were noted as areas of concern by employers and workers, but there was no clear direction on how these issues should be dealt with. These may warrant further study (along with one key area — harassment — which could not be fully assessed within the methodology of this evaluation). Some of these areas for possible future study include:

• examining the potential of "bundling," or combining, labour standards (e.g., allowing various "mixes" of hours of work, overtime, holiday provisions, etc.);
• examining harassment issues through a more focused study of harassment complainants; and
• examining the potential pathways of developing new labour standards initiatives through investigations involving focus groups and Delphi studies with representative groups of employers and workers.

Worker and employer findings clearly point to the value of labour standards addressing working conditions as they affect quality of work, life-long learning, harassment/security, and family life. These findings also suggest that there is a need to synthesize employer and worker/union views to find areas which could be developed with the harmonized collaboration of both employers and workers/unions.

Other Issues in the Evaluation

Below, we summarize our results on several key topics outside of the CWW issues. Each of these represents important broader concerns for the Labour Program, dealing with First Nations and labour standards; occupational safety and health; and education, enforcement, and compliance.

First Nations and Labour Standards: Findings of the First Nations component of the evaluation pointed towards a need for more training for LAOs in matters of cultural sensitivity and understanding of First Nations generally and related features of First Nations. Other culturally significant directions, which First Nations representatives noted would be worth pursuing, were: alternative dispute-resolution techniques, such as involvement of customary law or use of elders; other changes such as greater flexibility in the Code for First Nations; better information about the Code; and better recognition of social/political realities in the Code, particularly in the case of employment terminations, which may sometimes follow the election of a new Chief.

First Nations representatives also expressed interest in discussing the development of alternative delivery methods — where they would assume increased delivery responsibilities — mainly because of the relevance to First Nations self-government.

These results suggested that a joint working group effort could be initiated to deal with some of the types of issues noted, perhaps within a single region at first, to assess issues and remedies in the areas of types of information distribution, training for LAOs, and cultural orientation. Alternatively, these findings suggest that it could be desirable to add First Nations representatives to the Labour Program's existing consultation group.

Issues in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH): Findings of this component of the evaluation suggested the following:

Part II/Part III linkups: Generally, a variety of evidence suggests that an enforcement-oriented linkup between the Part II and the Part III data sets might be a useful method for identifying non-compliant employers in each program, depending on the specific company's industrial sector. This linkup is seen as potentially introducing efficiencies and facilitating a more effective enforcement role. A detailed test of this hypothesis is needed, however, and could be undertaken, for example, with the Labour Operations Information System (LOIS) as a key source.

Evaluating Part II: Initial information examined in the evaluation suggests that the improved performance trend in injuries under Part II in the federal sector may be slower than that of provincially regulated sectors. If this finding is validated through a detailed analysis, it would point to important issues in the OSH infrastructure of industries under the federally regulated sectors and potentially important cost issues. Significant costs for injuries and property damage would be occurring which could be reduced. This possibility gains in importance when we note that (unlike Part III), Part II covers the federal public service as well as federally regulated employers. Overall, considering issues of Part II/III linkup, costs of injuries and workers compensation, and operational issues, this assessment points to considerable potential value in considering a variety of research, including a formal and comprehensive evaluation of Part II.

Education/Enforcement/Compliance: This part of the evaluation brought forward some key issues related to compliance as seen by federal officials and others. Key points made by various federal representatives dealt with a wide range of client attitudes which influence compliance — from lack of awareness to deliberate non-compliance — when compliance was a problem. In all cases, however, an education/information approach was considered the most effective strategy, with heavy-handed enforcement/prosecution to be used as a last resort. These officials also reported that there is a belief that interdepartmental experiences with compliance are worth sharing, and that it is important to endeavour to remove inconsistencies within departments and to create a consistent framework within the federal government.

Two results stand out from these discussions: first, the results point towards considering certain changes to the compliance strategy as set out for the Labour Program, specifically through cost-saving efforts in the areas of education, the pooling of experiences, flexible policies, and ready response to requests for clarification; second, these results reaffirm the potential for certain conclusions of the 1997 evaluation. Specifically, these results underline the potential value of an effort to formally assess the impact of both stronger education and stronger enforcement strategies (see below, "Future Considerations for Part III").

VI. Future Considerations for Part III

Development of Part III

The evaluation identifies a number of broad considerations for the Department as regards the future development of Part III to deal with the range of issues examined in CWW, Part II, and so on:

• Long Hours of Work: Because the results show that chronic overtime is a pervasive phenomenon in Canadian workplaces, particularly in the federally regulated sector, and because workers identify this as a problem for balancing work and family life, should be considered which will aid the balance of work and family life. A such initiatives, the literature, and worker and employer views point towards particular value in considering protections such as, the right to time-off in lieu of paid overtime. This Part III alternative was endorsed as a desirable workplace change by majorities of both workers (61 percent) and employers (58 percent) surveyed.²
• This overall support for time off alternative put it front and centre in our examination of workplace practices which could ease the chronic overtime problem. In contrast, alternative approaches, such as providing workers the right to refuse overtime, previously recommended as a policy alternative by HRDC's Advisory Group on Working Time and the Distribution of Work (1994) were also supported by workers, but less so (supported 44 percent of workers as a desirable change) and the right to refuse overtime was only endorsed by a small minority of employers (only 24 percent of employers saw this as a desirable workplace change).
• Family-friendly and learning-oriented policies could be a key priority in Part III, the results suggest strongly aiding workers to better combine work and family responsibilities and to pursue learning opportunities with fewer impediments. Overall, as well it is anticipated that these types of policies will, in the long run, benefit the productivity of Canadian workplaces.
• Combining Labour Standards: The evaluation findings suggest that combining, or "bundling," of labour standards may be a useful concept to investigate, potentially to increase worker/employer flexibility while still maintaining basic floor standards. Combining labour standards, if feasible, would provide flexibility by allowing more generosity on one standard and less on another, where agreeable between employers and workers.
• First Nations: To respond to the unique needs of First Nations (e.g., unique configurations of employment and political/economic/cultural context), the results suggest that the Labour Program may find it desirable to establish a special dialogue with First Nations on the refinement and development of labour standards and their delivery.
• An evaluation of Part II is discussed, relative to a Part II/Part III linkup, and the apparent need for a stand-alone evaluation of Part II (OSH). Overall, a number of indicators pointed to the desirability of an evaluation of Part II, particularly given the widespread employer and worker concerns regarding OSH.
• Enforcement and Education: In the development of enforcement initiatives, the results suggest that a mix of strategies should be considered separately or in combination, for example, (1) regulatory strategies, enhancing worker rights in labour standards; and (2) educational activities, strengthening the commitment of human-resource managers and companies to related policies. Education and information are seen as the key strategies for most employers, intentional non-compliers excepted.

Considering compliance more broadly, widespread support for educational initiatives, both internationally and among other federal departments, suggests that it would be appropriate to explore the development of educational/informational experiments. This widespread support for educational initiatives suggests that these types of experiments could be aimed at improving employer awareness of their obligations, which would potentially reduce the workload costs of inspection-based enforcement and would provide an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of different types of approaches.

Considerations for Workplace Change

Some key potential changes were noted by both employers and workers in the evaluation surveys. In some cases, employers and workers appeared to share a common view of the kinds of changes needed in Canadian workplaces. Their views provide a platform for considering consultative avenues and include, as noted earlier, employer and worker support (albeit generally greater by workers) for such changes as:

• providing workers with the right to take time off in lieu of overtime (as a mechanism to aid the reduction of chronic overtime);
• better access to flextime;
• encouraging employers to provide skills training;
• more assistance for child care;
• improved health and safety in the workplace;
• assurance that employee benefits can be transferred to a new job or self-employment; and
• paid educational leave.

Building New Partnerships

To a great extent, this evaluation research has been most striking in the way in which it has identified the awareness of, and potential for, dealing with problems.

For example, many employers indicated a great deal of interest in developing more viable solutions to problems of family/work linkage, more viable models of at-home work, etc. This was also reflected in employer views of the potential for research and best practices in these areas. These findings suggest good potential for developing employer/worker (union) partnerships, possibly on a sectoral basis. Similarly, the evaluators were struck with the interest of First Nations in finding better ways to deal with many of their concerns.

Some of these findings may point to the desirability of developing new types of linkages to resolve such issues, beyond the traditional consultation processes which have been pursued by Part III. Some of these could be, for example:

• developing problem-focused working groups with industry — for example, examining the development of family-friendly policies in a particular sector;
• linking to academic and other institutes concerned with topics such as quality of family life;
• working jointly with other governmental units focused on related problems, such as life-long learning, family life, etc.; and
• promoting academic research on some of these issues.

Developing dialogue, consultations and partnerships in these areas may require special efforts and additional or reallocated staff for the Labour Program to develop new linkages with employers' groups, industry sectors, First Nations, and professional associations.

Possible Considerations for Research and Evaluation

Additionally, some other areas which noted as concerns by employers and workers may warrant further research (along with one key area — harassment — which could not be fully assessed by the methodology of this evaluation). Some of these topics that have emerged, possibly as requiring research or evaluation attention, which could aid consideration of future changes in Part III, include:

• examining the potential of "bundling" labour standards; study findings suggested that some approaches could involve looking at the trade-offs which workers and employers see between different types of labour standards and how preferences are mixed (e.g., how do workers assess a cap on overtime versus the point where overtime "clicks in" versus time off in lieu of overtime pay, or other). Such issues could be explored through focus groups, providing new perspectives on labour standards flexibility and useful insight to assessments of the Part III legislation alternatives;
• examining the potential pathways to new labour standards initiatives, as noted above, through investigations involving focus groups and Delphi studies with stakeholders and representative groups of employers and workers. Such a series of inquiries could examine closely the advantages, disadvantages, obstacles, and trade-offs attendant on considering new standards related to issues such as family life and learning;
• examining harassment issues through a more focused study of complaints and complainants; study findings suggested that such a study would look closely at the causes of harassment and how (noting the correlation of some CWW phenomena with worker concerns with harassment) labour standards might reduce the risks of harassment. Such a project could be approached through a survey and could be linked to a broader survey of complainants (such a survey has never been undertaken for Part III);
• examining further the international perspective on these and related questions. Initial contacts for this evaluation have opened a wide range of contacts and created great interest in exchanges among international contacts in the United States, and the European Community. These connections could be used to pursue a more integrated understanding — perhaps through a formal Delphi study — of the future of labour standards approaches to CWW, development of family-friendly policies, etc.;
• examining other Part III evaluation issues: In addition to study elements discussed above, a potential element of evaluation for any continued review of Part III would be to formally examine the impacts of informational/educational efforts. Study findings suggested that this approach could take either of two formats: (1) a formal experiment in education/information; or (2) monitoring educational/information inputs and impacts. Any such study would ideally be linked to a review of other compliance efficiency issues, such as examining the impacts of in-depth audits and use of Part II/Part III linkups to identify non-compliant employers.

Other Research: Finally, the evaluation results suggested that a number of areas of research would be aided by the collection of better data on working conditions in federally and provincially regulated sectors. Some of this type of work could be aided by potentially modest changes in procedures, definitions, etc., for larger surveys conducted by Statistics Canada. The evaluation's results suggest that review of the way in which such data could be improved would be highly desirable.

Overall, a concluding round of this Part III evaluation could resolve a variety of Part III issues and provide potentially useful input to the future development of Part II.

A Possible Evaluation of Part II: During this evaluation, as a topic in itself, not as an aspect of Part III, an evaluation of Part II has been suggested as an important priority for the department. Such an evaluation would possibly require a review of key issues in the organization, delivery, and effectiveness of the program but could also address both administrative issues of concern to the program (i.e., linkups and reporting in new regional administrative structures). Such an evaluation could also address key results related to costs of OSH infractions (including those within the federal public service), the effectiveness of internal responsibility, etc.

Footnotes

1	Trust companies are provincially regulated.
2	These data represent federal sector workers' assessments of what they felt "employers should do to improve the quality of work", and employers' assessments of what workplace practices they felt "should be encouraged more in Canadian workplaces".