Submission

Introduction

When our community group was presented with the opportunity to make a submission to the Canada Labour Code Review, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that we decided to take on such a challenge. The fact is that we struggled to identify the relevance of such a review to our constituents - who by and large are non-unionized, non-federal employees, low-waged (by Canadian standards), and non-traditional workers. Our constituents are the women of Prince Edward Island, who participate in an economy that defines normal work arrangements as seasonal, part-time, and low-waged.

PEI is as close to the definition of a new economy as one can get in Canada. Workers are used to the "just in time" status expected in this type of economy. Furthermore, low-wage levels make PEI one of the most competitive markets in North America. In order to attract new business, the provincial government actively markets workers in PEI as having low expectations for fairly compensated, meaningful employment. A persistent system of patronage contributes to worker reliance on government for jobs often resulting in workers taking what they can get as a means to qualify for Employment Insurance. Reliance on government handouts is a deterrent for many workers to question policies and legislation that govern employment situations. Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds you is an obvious self-preservation tactic that Islanders employ.

With PEI's economic reality in mind we set about looking at what recommendations we could make about a code that, in its coverage, is irrelevant to the majority of PEI women. We started this process by first asking what role the Canada Labour Code, Part III plays in the sphere of labour standards in Canada. We realized pretty quickly that although none of us in our organization are experts in labour standards, it is obvious the Canada Labour Code is stronger than the Provincial codes and acts in protecting workers and providing benefits. Therefore, the federal code acts as a benchmark for a sort of best practice in labour standards for the country.

Process

With the idea in mind that the federal code has generally better standards than the provinces, and knowing a review could result in significant improvements to the code, we set about the task of deciding to recommend guiding principles that would contribute to a strong and effective labour standards code that would be upheld as a best practice in Canada and around the world. These guiding principles can serve as a basis for other jurisdictions looking to improve and update employment standards.

The scope of the Canada Labour Code cannot possibly protect the most vulnerable workers in Canada because a small percentage of non-traditional workers are employed under the terms outlined by the Code. We believe that a standard needs to be set somewhere and somehow to cover non-traditional work arrangements. The provinces have been extremely discretionary with labour standards and although there is some movement forward in a number of jurisdictions, most provinces have set about tweaking the current legislation rather than revisioning employment standards for a workplace that bears little resemblance to the one for which original legislation was created to respond. Global competition for jobs and women's heavy participation in the workforce are not new realities, but are not addressed sufficiently by current acts and codes. We hope that both provincial and federal governments will take up the cause of the non-traditional worker so that they might enjoy the same protections and benefits of the now "elite" full-time, full-year, permanent employee.

So what can we recommend to a federal Labour Code Review ? A complete scraping of current standards which would create a worldwide best practice in labour standards that responds to 21st century economies would be a daunting task indeed. We do not know what that new code would look like, but have some important guiding principles that we would like to put forward.

Guiding Principles for Labour Standards Development

Principle #1
Mandate of a Labour Standards Code

Public institutions should foster and support economic equality

It is not the role of a women's equality-seeking organization to ensure such notions as employer competitiveness are honoured by a labour standards code. In fact, we firmly wish to state that we do not believe that a labour standards code should concern itself with the task of making conditions more favourable for businesses to make money. The role of a labour code, as we see it, is to protect workers from exploitation.

Principle #2
Labour Standards should cover all types of workers

Access should be universal. This means that policy, guidelines, and rules are designed to cover all workers . This also includes physical access (ex. accessible buildings, central location), and social access (ex. plain language documents, services in your language, friendly & helpful service)

All workers, regardless of their status within the workplace and workforce are entitled to be protected by labour standards. Part-time, contract, casual, and other non-traditional workers are making up a growing percentage of the workforce and are starting to define the term "worker" more and more. Therefore, a labour code should respond to the needs of this significant portion of the working population in Canada.

Principle #3
Labour Standards Codes and Women's Equality

Current labour standards do not respond to the needs of women in the workforce. Meaningful and ongoing consultation with women workers and equality-seeking women's groups should be conducted in order to ascertain specific recommendations for improvements to the code. We recognize that this current review is an opportunity to do just that. We appreciate the opportunity to make a contribution to the framing of new standards. With that being said we would like to make the following principles be part of a lens that informs policy and legislation for employment standards:

• Public institutions should apply a gender lens and diversity analysis in their legislation/policy development and decision making in order to make services and programs more universal and responsive.
• Employers and legislation/policy makers should recognize that women make essential contributions to the labour market.
• Women provide service and skills to employers in good faith and this relationship should be one of mutual respect and benefit.
• Women's traditional roles doing unpaid work and other work of diminished value (caregiving, service) should be valued for the essential contribution to the well-being of all our society.
• Breaking down traditional gender roles/expectations in the home and workplace should be encouraged through policy that supports men being active in traditional female roles and vice versa.
• Workers deserve to have family-friendly work-places.

Principle #4
Minimum Standards should be Livable Standards

Economic development initiatives should be citizen focussed and environment focussed. The number of jobs created isn't as important as the quality of jobs (livable income, worker-friendly) and the health of the environment

Employment standards should be tested as to whether they contribute to a livable income or have a hand in keeping workers from meeting their financial requirements with dignity. A wealthy country like Canada should have no business in perpetuating poverty among its own citizens. Canadian minimum wages in particular are well below a livable income and need to be acknowledged as sub-standard, then raised to a livable income level. The Canada Labour Code should have a national minimum wage that is livable and indexed.