Labour standards bill is a threat to businesses

For some Quebec employers, proposed law could be the last straw, Stéphane Forget says.

A law is judged by its effects, not the legislator’s intentions, regardless of how laudable they may seem. Bill 176, “An Act to amend the Act respecting labour standards and other legislative provisions mainly in order to facilitate family-work balance,” introduced last month in the National Assembly, is a case in point.

This bill threatens to undermine the competitiveness and viability of many businesses in Quebec. The government seems to be failing to take into account comparative standards in other jurisdictions, and thus what consequences the bill will have on businesses’ decisionmaking processes.

We would all like to argue in favour of achieving a healthy balance between family and work. However, this piece of legislation, when combined with existing standards, the planned minimum wage hike and the recently announced increases to Quebec Pension Plan contributions, poses a risk to many businesses. This could very well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Quebec’s labour standards are already among the most favourable to labour in North America. In fact, the employer-employee contribution ratio in Quebec is 45 per cent higher than the Canadian average.

For the next 15 years at least, Quebec, more than anywhere else in North America, is expected to face a labour shortage. This in itself will give workers more bargaining power and will increase labour costs. Not only will Quebec’s regulatory straitjacket add to the administrative and operating costs of businesses, it risks hindering the innovation and the willingness to experiment needed to recruit and retain employees.

For example, let us consider the bill’s proposal to prohibit differences in pension plans or benefits based on an employee’s date of

Quebec’s labour standards are already among the most favourable to labour in North America.

hire. This measure would primarily, but not exclusively, affect large companies that have been established for several years. These businesses will need to modernize their pension and benefits plans to be equitable in light of the new labour market reality, without reneging on their commitments to more senior employees.

Not only will this new measure compromise innovation relating to social benefits, it runs the risk of degenerating into intergenerational labour disputes. Moreover, since this measure is not co-ordinated with other Canadian jurisdictions, it would create a significant and costly mess for businesses with employees outside of Quebec.

This bill will also penalize young employees, the mobile generation who seek better control over their pension plans. They must be treated fairly, but the bill presents too rigid a model. When given a choice, young people often opt for different plans from their elders.

The bill also imposes requirements on businesses that have no choice but to use the services of temporary employment agencies: First, to ensure that the agency pays its own employees at least the rate of pay for employees of the business who perform the same tasks, and second, to be jointly responsible for the agency’s financial obligations toward its employees.

At the same time as the bill is offering employees more flexibility with regards to their schedules, it seems particularly inappropriate to make it more difficult, if not impossible, for businesses to compensate by using these agencies, which provide employers with a means of accommodating their employees. It is just as unreasonable to make a client company liable for the agency’s obligations toward its employees: such a responsibility seems likely to make the agency unaccountable, whereas, on the contrary, we would like to make them more accountable.

Quebec finally has an opportunity to catch up with the rest of North America. It’s not advisable to stifle this progress for the sake of labour standards, which are already more flexible than those on the rest of the continent.

Stéphane Forget is president and chief executive officer of the Montreal-based Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec.