Labour law changes timely

The devil, according to Labour Minister Don Morgan, will be in the details, and those will be worked out through negotiation at the committee level in the legislature.

But unless some evil intent worms its way into those meetings, there is little in the proposed Saskatchewan Employment Act he tabled Tuesday to substantiate fears that it would be an all-out attack on organized labour by a rightwing government.

In fact, of those few sections that could prove contentious — for example, the section on essential services or the requirement that unions provide audited financial statements to members and publish the result of votes — may easily be trumped by the courts or federal government.

In an interview with The StarPhoenix editorial board, Mr. Morgan said the legislation will maintain the existing essential service provision until the appeal court has ruled on its validity. The government doesn’t want to be seen as forcing the hands of the court and making interim changes that could result in the most controversial parts of changes being left in legal limbo.

So it is logical to simply leave room in the act for any needed adjustments once the court issues its ruling.

Meanwhile, the House of Commons is already locked in a heated debate over Bill C-377 — a private member’s bill that has received support from the government side — that would require unions to post financial statements on their websites, including any transaction worth more than $5,000 and the names and addresses of the payees, and how much was spent on lobbying, for political purposes, and on education.

The openness changes proposed in the Saskatchewan bill seem mild in comparison to the federal bill, requiring only the availability of audited statement to members including on a secure website, and full disclosure of vote results.

Union officials may be upset with the provision that they can no longer arbitrarily assess fines against members for crossing picket lines, but allowing courts to rule on these fines helps provide a greater sense of fairness and makes the rules clearer for members.

The new act hasn’t hacked away at such things as minimum wages, the number of hours one must work before qualifying for overtime, the numbers of vacation and holiday days, or the ability of unions to organize. It does try, however, to bring some stability and predictability into a sector that is often racked by confrontation and uncertainty.

It also provides a greater measure of equity, including a clause that would remove the ability of the director of employment standards to approve a lower minimum wage for disabled persons — something that may raise issues with organizations such as Saskatoon’s Cosmo Industries.

There is no question that Saskatchewan needs to modernize its current stable of labour laws. Ultimately, for any labour legislation to be without controversy requires the commitment of employers and employees to harmony.

As regulations get drafted, it will be up to the politicians to set aside their inherent distrust and work with labour and industry to build that harmony. The editorials that appear in this space represent the opinion of The StarPhoenix. They are unsigned because they do not necessarily represent the personal views of the writers. The positions taken in the editorials are arrived at through discussion among the members of the newspaper’s editorial board, which operates independently from the news departments of the paper.