Canada’s Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan has promised to follow through on a longstanding promise to present anti-scab legislation in the House of Commons.
This new legislation would ban the use of replacement workers (scabs) during labour disputes with employees.
Anti-scab legislation is something that the labour movement has been calling for for many years. Canada’s largest private sector union, Unifor, said that pushing for anti-scab legislation as a priority this fall session of Parliament.
“Unifor looks forward to the day when anti-scab legislation is in place in Canada,” said Lana Payne, Unifor national president. “Our union has long called for this measure to bring balance and fairness in Canada’s labour relations, and we won’t rest until this legislative protection is in place for federally-regulated workers.”
The NDP, although not in government, introduced an anti-scab bill of their own last November to pressure the ruling Liberals on the issue.
“The NDP has a long and strong history to defend workers rights and we think it’s about time to have anti-scab legislation at the federal level,” said NDP labour critic Alexandre Boulerice who introduced the bill, adding that it will help balance the playing field for employees during a dispute, conflict, or collective agreement. “It’s important not to have replacement workers that are taking the jobs of people who are exerting their rights to defend their working conditions and their lives.”
READ MORE: With 60,000 Canadian workers on strike, NDP introduces anti-scab bill
On September 19, a rally was held on Parliament Hill by union leaders calling on O’Regan to introduce a strong anti-scab bill.
“We are here to remind this government that they promised anti-scab legislation, and we are still waiting. We all heard Minister O’Regan: he committed to bringing this piece of legislation in, before the end of 2023. We were clear on what this legislation must look like, and I hope he heard us,” said Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) national president Mark Hancock.
CUPE calls for anti-scab protections for remote workers
When explaining why he was putting forward this new legislation, O’Regan said it was for a number of reasons, including because the use of scabs violated a workers right to bargain.
“[It is] because we believe in collective bargaining; because replacement workers distract from the table (negotiations), because they prolong disputes, because they poison the workplace for years afterwards,” he said.
Unions like CUPE are warning the Liberals, however, not to leave gaps in this new legislation, including for remote workers.
According to Statistics Canada, nearly one-in-four Canadians worked from home during the pandemic, reaching its height in May of 2021. Forbes reports that in the US, the number of remote workers remains high, with 12.7 per cent being fully-remote and 28.2 per cent working in a hybrid model, and these numbers are likely similar in Canada.
CUPE’s national office is calling on the federal government to introduce a full ban on scabs in any work setting. They also question if there are strong enough protections in the bill for employees, unionized or not, who refuse to cross a picket line.
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