Unions vow to continue C-59 fight if bill passes

Public servants showed Senate a dry run of planned legal challenge

Unions representing Canada’s public servants gave a Senate committee a dry run of the legal challenge they will launch if the budget bill that overrides federal labour laws is passed.

The leaders of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada told senators on the national finance committee Tuesday that the 17 federal unions will “take every legal avenue” to challenge Bill C-59 if passed.

They argue the provisions that give the government carte blanche to impose whatever sick leave and disability regime it wants are unconstitutional and should be “completely struck” from the proposed legislation.

“We are doing ... everything we can now to stop it now from actually becoming law, but once it is law we will be following up with every legal avenue available, including a Charter challenge,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC’s national executive vice-president in an interview.

The budget bill allows Treasury Board president Tony Clement to set aside parts of the Public Service Labour Relations Act, which governs collective bargaining in the public service, to impose new terms and conditions for sick leave. This paves the way for the shortterm disability plan he wants implemented.

It means Treasury Board can dictate terms of the three most contentious issues around sick leave — the amount of annual sick leave public servants will be entitled to, the amount they can carry over to the next year and how the existing sick-leave banks will be handled.

“Treasury Board (has) unilateral power to impose whatever terms and conditions it wants in relation to sick leave for whatever employees it wants within the core public administration, whenever it wants and for as long as it wants,” said PIPSC president Debi Daviau.

The unions raised a number of “troubling” changes that will tie their hands in the ongoing round of bargaining.

They say the bill “stacks the deck” by giving Treasury Board the unilateral power to impose the terms of sick leave, which is the biggest and most contentious issue at the ongoing contract talks. Those terms will be enshrined in all collective agreements, overriding existing and more generous sick leave benefits.

The legislation allows the government to override the “statutory freeze” provisions of the Public Service Labour Relations Act.

This clause ensures expired contracts are frozen or remain in place until a new agreement is reached. The Supreme Court has argued that such freeze provisions, which ensure employers don’t change terms and conditions of work while bargaining is underway, “fosters the exercise of the right of association.”

But Daviau said the most “shocking ” change is that whatever order Treasury Board issues relating to sick leave can skirt the test of Statutory Compliance Act. That act requires

We are doing ... everything we can now to stop it now from actually becoming law.

that the Clerk of the Privy Council and the deputy minister of Justice to review the order to ensure it conforms with the Charter. In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions on freedom of association, this provision is an “affront to the rule of law,” said Daviau.

“I urge the committee to defend the credibility of Parliament’s lawmaking powers which must respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Daviau told senators.