Entrevue par radio

Improving The Workplace

KACEY WILSON (CJOB) : How can the workplace be improved? Well that's the question being asked today at a hearing here in Winnipeg. The Federal Labour Standards Review Commission is in our city today. Daphne Taras is with the Commission. She joins us from the Radisson Hotel downtown.

Daphne what is this hearing all about today?

DAPHNE TARAS (Federal Labour Standards Review Commission) : Hi Kacey. First of all we're here as a part of a 13 city swing across the country to here from any interested participants in ways of modernizing our Federal Labour Code. It hasn't been looked at since it was brought in in 1965 in any kind of comprehensive way.

WILSON : What kind of issues does that include? I mean are we talking about the hours that we work?

TARAS : We're talking about hours of work; we're talking about shift scheduling; minimum wage; vacation pay entitlements. It's basically the contract of employment.

WILSON : What have you been hearing from Winnipeggers today?

TARAS : I've gotten today briefed from an aggrieved individual, from the Manitoba unions, the Federation of Independent business, knowledgeable academics and an advocacy group, and that's pretty typical of what we've been getting across the country. And what we're hearing is I guess a lot of employers are coming to us and saying we want more flexibility and a lot of employees are coming to us and saying we want flexibility and they tend to mean different things by those. Workers want work work-life balance and employers want the ability to schedule more work.

And then on top of that we're hearing a lot of complaints that we've got to have not only the law, but we've got to have more effective compliance and enforcement of it. We can write the most perfect law in the world, but it's not going to really affect the lives of workers unless we have a way of making it happen.

WILSON : If there are changes, when will Canadians see these?

TARAS : Well we don't make the changes. We're making the recommendations for the changes. Our Commissioner Harry Arthurs is going to be making a recommendation document next summer; so the summer of 2006 it will go to the Minister and then what happens is I guess up to the government. There's a lot of will to make those changes, but...

WILSON : And Winnipeggers can stop down there today and let their voices -

TARAS : Absolutely. We're going to have a bit of a round table in about an hour and a half. I'm going to hear a couple more briefs from... formal briefs and then we're going to actually ask people to participate in a round table so we can not only have sort of a formal supreme court like thing going on, but we an actually have people discuss things with each other.

WILSON : All right and that's at the Radisson Hotel Winnipeg downtown. Daphne Taras is with the Federal Labour Standards Review Commission. Thanks so much.