Submission

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce is a volunteer driven, not for profit organization whose mission is to lead and serve the Calgary business community, valuing its diversity. The Chamber boasts a membership of over 3,500 representatives.

The Calgary Chamber proposes the following guiding assumptions for Part III of Canada's Labour code:

• Flexibility
• Inclusiveness
• Competitiveness
• Smart Regulation

Within our submission, The Calgary Chamber addresses several questions from the Federal Labour Standards Review Consultation Paper. A brief outline of the question and associate recommendation(s) follows.

SETTING THE BAR FOR FEDERAL LABOUR STANDARDS

The Commission asks:

"What should be the overall objective of federal labour standards?"

Recommendations:

1. The overall objective of Part III of the Canada Labour Code should be to provide minimum standards with respect to the basic employment contract and ensure significant flexibility for employers to meet the needs of their employees, remain competitive, and contribute to a strengthening Canadian economy.
2. Part III of the Canada Labour Code should include a preamble that illustrates the desire to support the development of good relations and workplace practices, is based on the common interest of the success of the employing organization, and the intent to establish minimum standards for terms and conditions of employment.

   The Preamble could be:

   WHEREAS the Parliament of Canada desires to continue and extend its support to employees and employers in their cooperative efforts to develop good relations and workplace practices;

   AND WHEREAS the employee - employer relationship is based on a common interest in the success of the employing organization;

   AND WHEREAS legislation is an appropriate means of establishing basic standards for terms and conditions of employment.

The Commission asks:

"What should be the relationship between labour standards and conditions of work established by collective agreements?"

Recommendation:

3. Company level agreements, whether individual or collective, should be encouraged allowing their implementation with a minimum of scrutiny, understanding that our stance is to encourage business to operate at the highest levels of integrity.

LOOKING AT EXISTING FEDERAL LABOUR STANDARDS: WHAT WORKS? WHAT DOES NOT WORK?

The Commission asks

"Do any current provisions of Part III of the Canada Labour Code need improvement? Are there problems with the application of Part III of the Code that need examining?"

Recommendations:

4. The Calgary Chamber supports the Canadian Chamber's recommendation to expand the criteria to exempt employees that are highly paid, manage their own hours, or work independently from the hours of work provisions. A new provision could be considered which might be called "contracted output" to recognize pay for completed work not related to time spent on it.
5. Eliminate the provision in the legislation, Division IX, Group Termination of Employment, requiring 16 weeks notice to the Minister of Labour if the employer is terminating 50 or more employees within a particular industrial establishment.

The Commission asks:

"Should any issue currently covered under Part III of the Code be dealt with elsewhere instead, such as another federal statute?

Recommendation:

6. The provision to establish and maintain workplace environments free from discrimination and/or harassment, including sexual harassment, falls under the Canadian Human Rights Act..

BALANCING WORK AND PERSONAL/FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Commission asks:

"What could be done to help employees achieve a better work-life balance, while also taking into account employers' needs?"

Recommendation:

7. Part III of the Canada Labour Code should not legislate work-life balance but through the appropriate government departments increase awareness of this issue through a continual program of education, information and promotion.

WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY

The Commission asks:

"To what extent are current federal labour standards positively or negatively affecting productivity?"

Recommendation:

8. Part III of the Canada Labour Code should not legislate mandatory employee training.

INTRODUCTION

A majority of The Calgary Chamber of Commerce members are governed by provincial labour legislation, however The Chamber recognizes that federal legislation governs some of our members and may influence changes to provincial legislation.

The Chamber takes a keen interest in all human resource policies established by governments. To address these issues, The Chamber created the Human Resources Policy Committee over 15 years ago. The committee is comprised of senior human resource professionals that represent the Chamber's membership on all HR related issues.

The Human Resources Committee continues to actively promote the interests of the business community and continually works to improve the business community through a variety of initiatives. Two such projects are the Talent Pool Project (now the Talent Pool Development Society of Calgary) and the HR in a Box Project.

The Talent Pool was created to address dis-connect between companies who could not find the skilled workers they needed and the number of people in Calgary who were skilled and educated and yet under-employed or unemployed. Now a registered not-for-profit society, the project works with the business community, Government and education to help businesses find the skilled workers they need by focusing on those people often overlooked when it comes to recruiting. Specifically, the Talent Pool targets youth, older workers, immigrants, Aboriginal peoples and people with disabilities. Over the past three years, The Talent Pool has conducted research, created an information source for business about under-utilized pools of talent and strategies to access them, and developed projects for immigrants and for Aboriginal peoples to help them get the career information and experience they need to qualify for jobs. Similar initiatives will be developed for the other Talent Pool groups.

To build HR capacities within our membership, many of whom are small businesses, The Chamber created HR in a Box. A web based product, HR in a Box offers our members quick, easy to digest information regarding best practices in a variety of HR related areas including hiring, training, career development, compensation and benefits, and strategic planning.

GUIDING ASSUMPTIONS

Much has changed in the work world since the Canada Labour Code was introduced in 1965, including significant changes to Canada's demographic composition, an increase in the number of entrepreneurs, a substantial increase in information workers, a reduction in rural workers and farmers, and the challenge of finding skilled employees. Additionally, technology now plays a substantial role in the workplace with the addition of elite methods of communication, labour-saving equipment, and computer technology embedded in almost all workplaces.

The Chamber is pleased to provide our views and recommendations with respect to these changes and their associated implications for Part III of the Canada Labour Code. In a broad context, The Chamber offers the following guiding assumptions:

Flexibility

To develop and sustain a productive economy, labour standards must offer significant flexibility to allow employers and employees to respond to changing market conditions. The revised Code should be flexible enough to take into account the variety of working arrangements and the desire of many workers to negotiate their own work arrangements without over regulating the employment relationship.

Inclusiveness

Canada's demographic composition is becoming increasingly diverse. The revised Code needs to recognize this diversity and provide the necessary flexibility for employers and employees to accommodate a variety of cultures, religions, ages, organizational size, and rural and urban environments.

Competitiveness

To foster and enhance Canada's productivity and competitiveness, labour standards should be minimal, permitting organizations to operate relatively free of the current myriad of regulatory requirements. The system should be devised to encourage good labour practices.

Smart Regulation

A government-wide initiative aimed at improving the Government of Canada's regulatory performance. It involves a series of projects that strengthen the policy, processes, tools and regulatory community that are needed to sustain high levels of regulatory performance and facilitate continuous improvement. The projects emphasize the importance of safeguarding the health and safety of Canadians, contributing to a healthy environment and securing the conditions for an innovative economy.¹

While regulatory standards, with consistent and efficient enforcement, may be a factor in retaining Canada's competitive advantage, over-regulation often results in decreased competitiveness, costly administration, and decreased productivity. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives recently expressed concern that many of Canada's regulatory processes tend to be too costly, complex, lengthy and subject to too much arbitrary political decision-making.² Canada's labour standards must be built upon the principles of Smart Regulation. In particular it should be flexible, focus on desired outcomes, and offer an efficient approach to protection of public interests.

SETTING THE BAR FOR FEDERAL LABOUR STANDARDS

The Commission asks:

"What should be the overall objective of federal labour standards?"

The Calgary Chamber supports the notion that Part III of the Canada Labour Code should define the basic standards in areas related to the employment contract. This would include hours of work and/or contracted output, vacation entitlement, notice periods for lay off or termination and minimum wage levels. By limiting the standards to basic areas such as these, employees and employers could determine the employment relationship that best suits their needs within a framework requiring a minimum level of protection.

With respect to contracted output, many people work to complete a task as opposed to being in attendance a certain number of hours. Also people work from their homes or while on the road in hotel rooms, business centres, etc. and it is not possible to monitor hours of work. A person who is experienced at a task may be able to complete it quickly while someone new to it, will not be so efficient thus making the notion of hours of work of no value for work required by many employers.

The Chamber believes that employers and employees are best served when they determine the workplace arrangement which meets their needs and provides the highest mutual benefit through discussion. However, several factors are now intensifying the need for this approach. Specifically, interaction between skill shortages, an aging population, and the entrance of Generation Y employees will create a greater need for negotiations and individualized working arrangements.

A growing body of research indicates that Canadian businesses will face a shortage of skilled employees, if they are not already. At present, Canada's unemployment rate is 6.8%³. In Alberta, the unemployment rate is significantly lower at about 4.2% and lower still in Calgary at 3.3%⁴. In 2003 TD Bank Financial Group released a report that raised concerns about the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor and offered suggestions to enhance the corridor's economic strength. A key concern identified was skill shortages. An associated recommendation called upon employers to adopt more flexible work arrangements.⁵

According to a recently released study by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada entitled Growing Up: The Social and Economic Implications of an Aging Population,, Canada's already aging population will accelerate as the baby boom generation (individuals born between 1947 and 1966) begins to reach age 65 by 2012. Furthermore, this is coupled with a declining younger worker population.

It is anticipated that by 2016 the number of individuals entering the workforce will be equivalent to the number of individuals leaving the workforce and by 2026 the number of individuals leaving the workforce will exceed the number entering.⁶

Furthermore "Generation Y," employees born between 1977 and 1994, approach the workplace differently than previous generations. They are trained to challenge the system, seek creative and intellectually challenging work, and desire individualized training and reduced bureaucracy. In other words, "They live the microwave lifestyle - no waiting."⁷

For organizations to compete for skilled talent, attract today and tomorrow's youth, and retain aging employees, they will be required to develop a variety of strategies and programs and to negotiate the employment relationship based on the needs of both the employer and the employee. As such, labour standards need to be more of an umbrella rather than a comprehensive template of rules and regulations. They should be clear in intent and inclusive without ruling on every aspect of the working relationship.

Presently, Part III of the Canada Labour Code tries to take into account all variety of rules and regulations to make the playing field level for everyone. This approach limits flexibility. An umbrella of intention and values would be helpful to employers and employees rather than hard and fast rules that attempt to "catch" every possible combination and permutation related to employer/employee relationships.

Recommendations:

1. The overall objective of Part III of the Canada Labour Code should provide minimum standards with respect to the basic employment contract and ensure significant flexibility for employers to meet the needs of their employees, remain competitive, and contribute to a strengthening Canadian economy.
2. Part III of the Canada Labour Code should include a preamble that illustrates the desire to support the development of good relations and workplace practices, is based on the common interest of the success of the employing organization, and the intent to establish minimum standards for terms and conditions of employment.

   The Preamble could be as follows:

   WHEREAS the Parliament of Canada desires to continue and extend its support to employees and employers in their cooperative efforts to develop good relations and workplace practices;

   AND WHEREAS the employee - employer relationship is based on a common interest in the success of the employing organization;

   AND WHEREAS legislation is an appropriate means of establishing basic standards for terms and conditions of employment.

The Commission asks:

"What should be the relationship between labour standards and conditions of work established by collective agreements?"

The Calgary Chamber supports the Canadian Chambers assertion that "company level agreements, whether individual or collective, should be encouraged by allowing their implementation with a minimum of scrutiny." These agreements allow companies and employees to develop working relationships that are mutually beneficial, enhance productivity, and reflect what is important to both the employer and the employee.

Recommendation:

3. Company level agreements, whether individual or collective, should be encouraged by allowing their implementation with a minimum of scrutiny, understanding that our stance is to encourage business to operate at the highest levels of integrity.

LOOKING AT EXISTING FEDERAL LABOUR STANDARDS: WHAT WORKS? WHAT DOES NOT WORK?

The Calgary Chamber believes that Part III of the Canada Labour Code is overly prescriptive and should be adapted to increase flexibility and apply the principles of Smart Regulation.

The Commission asks:

"Do any current provisions of Part III of the Canada Labour Code need improvement? Are there problems with the application of Part III of the Code that need examining?"

Division I, Hours of Work

With the growth of the knowledge economy and the desire for flexibility and balance among employees, the hours of work provisions are no longer the only or best measurement tool. The Calgary Chamber supports the Canadian Chambers recommendation to expand the criteria to exempt employees that are highly paid, manage their own hours, or work independently from the hours of work provisions. A new provision could be considered which might be called "contracted output" to recognize pay for completed work not related to time spent on it. This would particularly apply to the large and increasing number of knowledge workers in Canada's workforce.

Division IX, Group Termination of Employment

Regarding the simultaneous terminations of 50 or more employees, the requirement to notify the Minister of Labour is not necessary.

The Calgary Chamber recommends the elimination of the requirement for employers to provide 16 weeks notice to the Minister of Labour if the employer is terminating 50 or more employees within a particular industrial establishment. Many Companies assist departing employees as demanded by their industry associations and communities. Furthermore, the elimination of this provision would allow employers to be creative in their approaches to assisting departing employees. Finally, employers are in a better position to take into account regional and technical differences, and the strengths and needs of their own workforce. A role for government is to educate, and if requested, coordinate the efforts of the downsizing organization with resources for re-deployment of staff. Both the downsizing employer and the community at large have a stake in the fast re-employment of terminated staff.

Recommendations:

4. The Calgary Chamber supports the Canadian Chambers recommendation to expand the criteria to exempt employees that are highly paid, manage their own hours, or work independently from the hours of work provisions. A new provision could be considered which might be called "contracted output" to recognize pay for completed work not related to time spent on it.
5. Eliminate the provision in the legislation, Division IX, Group Termination of Employment, requiring 16 weeks notice to the Minister of Labour if the employer is terminating 50 or more employees within a particular industrial establishment.

The Commission asks:

"Should any issue currently covered under Part III of the Code be dealt with elsewhere instead, such as another federal statute?

Division XV.1 - Sexual Harassment

The Calgary Chamber promotes the establishment and maintenance of workplace environments that are free from any form of discrimination and/or harassment, including sexual harassment. However, we believe the Canadian Human Rights Act. provides the protection required. Therefore, it is not necessary for these provisions to be duplicated in a different piece of legislation, such at the Canada Labour Code.

Recommendation:

6. The provision to establish and maintain workplace environments free from discrimination and/or harassment, including sexual harassment, falls under the Canadian Human Rights Act..

BALANCING WORK AND PERSONAL/FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Commission asks:

"What could be done to help employees achieve a better work-life balance, while also taking into account employers' needs?"

The Calgary Chamber supports the development of healthy workplaces that recognize the importance of work-life balance. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that stress related problems alone cost Canadian businesses $20 billion annually⁸. In addition to reclaiming some of the monies lost to stress related problems, businesses can also realize benefits due to:

• Reduced benefit costs
• Reduced absenteeism
• Reduced WCB premiums and/or rebates
• Higher levels of productivity
• Enhanced personnel engagement, retention and recruitment

Many companies have recognized these benefits and have taken steps to provide their employees with the flexibility they require to balance their work and personal/family responsibilities. Finding balance between work and personal/family responsibilities requires a significant amount of flexibility within the workplace to recognize a broad range of individual differences. At the same time, each employer has unique business needs.

The Government of Canada has also realized the importance of balance with the addition of information to several areas of their website. This includes information found through Human Resources Skills Development Canada and through Health Canada.

The Calgary Chamber believes that Part III of the Canada Labour Code should not prescribe legislation to regulate balance. Rather, the Government of Canada should continue to proactively promote work-life balance and make information available to both employers and employees.

Recommendation:

7. Part III of the Canada Labour Code should not legislate work-life balance but through the appropriate government departments increase awareness of this issue through a continual program of education, information and promotion.

WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY

The Commission asks:

"To what extent are current federal labour standards positively or negatively affecting productivity?"

Several alarms have been raised regarding Canada's productivity. According to the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, Canada's GDP per capita (at purchasing power parity in Canadian dollars) in 2003 was $38,500 as compared to the US at $45,700. This raises concerns about Canada's prosperity in relation to our largest trading partner. The Institute suggests that productivity is the key to closing the prosperity gap and that "Canadian individuals, businesses and governments need to partner more effectively to generate higher prosperity from our physical and human resources."⁹

In 1994, the OECD provided empirical evidence, based on international comparisons, that jurisdictions taking a flexible approach to labour markets benefit with higher rates of job creation, technological change, and economic growth.¹⁰ Jurisdictions taking a more rigid approach find the opposite and often face increased unemployment.¹¹

To foster and enhance Canada's productivity, labour standards should permit organizations to operate relatively freely and establish an environment that encourages best practices while legislating basic standards.

The Commission asks:

"Should new provisions be added to Part III of the Canada Labour Code to support employee learning and training opportunities?"

The Calgary Chamber supports the recommendation and analysis of the Canadian Chamber regarding non-legislated training and development. Forcing companies to provide training would result in an inefficient use of limited resources and would not necessarily meet the needs of the employee. With a knowledge based economy and the competition to attract and retain skilled talent, employers have the necessary incentive to invest and train their employees.

Recommendation

8. Part III of the Canada Labour Code should not legislate mandatory employee training.

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC CONCERNS

Often laws and regulations are established for all, in order to deal with problems that occur in certain sectors or even in response to single situations. Unnecessary regulation is put in place to which all must abide when "spot" regulations would make better sense.

In the case of the trucking industry many people have stories of drivers being expected to work very long hours and of families that suffer and accidents that happen. This would be an example of an industry that would benefit from more regulation and stricter enforcement. There may be other examples. Under an umbrella concept of broad law and regulation, this industry and similar ones could be singled out for special treatment and a higher level of regulatory control. It could be established on a time-limited basis so that if the industry was to the point where this was not necessary it could be eliminated and come under the general Code law and regulation.

RESOURCES

Alberta Human Resources Employment, "Labour Force Statistics", Government of Alberta, August 2005.

Canadian Council of Chief Executives, www.ceocouncil.ca.

Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, "Growing Up: The Social and Economic Implications of an Aging Population,", 2005.

Duxbury, Linda, "The Best and Brightest: Feedback will Pay Back", 2005 http://www.sprott.carleton.ca/news/2005/cge_feature3.pdf.

Fraser Forum, "Measuring Labour Markets in Canada and the United States: 2004 Edition", Fraser Institute, September 2004.

Government of Canada, Smart Regulation Initiative, www.regulation.gc.ca.

Hirsch, Todd, Brunnen, Ben and Molin, Kristina, "Willing and Able. The Problem of Skills Shortages in Western Canada", Canada West Foundation, 2004.

Hirsch, Todd, "Toward a Bright Future. Recommendations for Addressing Skills Shortages in Western Canada", Canada West Foundation, 2005.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) "Jobs Study", OECD Ministerial Council, 1994.

TD Economics, "The Calgary Edmonton Corridor. Take Action Now to Ensure Tiger's Roar Doesn't Fade", TD Bank Financial Group, 2003.

Statistics Canada, Government of Canada, August 2005.

World Economic Forum, "Realizing Canada's Prosperity Potential", Presentation at Annual Meeting in Switzerland, 2005.

Endnotes

¹ Government of Canada, "Smart Regulation Initiative", www.regulation.gc.ca

² Canadian Council of Chief Executives, www.ceocouncil.ca/en/innovation/regulation.php

³ Statistics Canada, Government of Canada, August 2005.

⁴ Alberta Human Resources and Employment, "Labour Force Statistics", Government of Alberta, August 2005.

⁵ TD Bank Financial Group, "The Calgary Edmonton Corridor, Take Action Now to Ensure Tiger's Roar Doesn't Fade", 2003.

⁶ Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, "Growing Up: The Social and Economic Implications of an Aging Population", 2005.

⁷ Duxbury, Linda, "The Best and Brightest: Feedback will Pay Back", 2005 http://www.sprott.carleton.ca/news/2005/cge_feature3.pdf.

⁸ Conference Board of Canada

⁹ World Economic Forum, "Realizing Canada's Prosperity Potential" 2005

¹⁰ OECD Jobs Study, OECD Ministerial Council, 1994

¹¹ Fraser Forum, "Measuring Labour Markets in Canada and the United States: 2004", Fraser Institite, 2004