Dave Coles is President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
by Dave Coles
The good news is that CETA negotiations have stalled. The bad news is the reason for the most recent impasse — human rights guarnatees — which is a damning comment on the Harper government's thinking.
by Dave Coles
Bill 85 (Saskatchewan Employment Act) distills 900 pages of legislation into fewer than 200 pages and replaces 12 specific statutes with a single “Labour Code”. The existing legislation represents more than a half century of accumulated labour law. No government can presume to properly review, consult and modify so much legislation in a few months.
by Dave Coles
While most Canadians are appalled by the privately run US healthcare system we tolerate a pension system based on similar principles.
by Dave Coles
An in-depth Globe and Mail Report on Business article titled Generation Nixed: Why Canada’s youth are losing hope for the future noted that the real unemployment rate for youth 18 to 25 has reached 1 in 5, the highest in fifteen years. Concurrently, skyrocketing tuition fees and housing costs have pushed up average household debt levels among this age group to $74,100 from $44,500 ten years ago.
By Dave Coles
Saskatchewan now has Canada’s lowest provincial minimum wage. At $9.50 an hour, someone working 40 hours per week earns $19,700 for an entire year, which is below various poverty measurements.
The minimum wage in most provinces is $10-11. Many European countries have a much higher minimum wage. In Australia, the federal minimum wage is $15.51 an hour — and the Canadian and Australian dollar are of similar value.
Does the Saskatchewan Party respect international labour law? If their ongoing labour reform is any indication the answer is no.
A half dozen proposals in the labour consultation paper the government unveiled in May would definitely contravene International Labour Organization (ILO) statutes. For example, in a move that could affect a large number of unorganized workers, the consultation paper asks "What limitations should there be on hours of work, if any?"
Any move to lengthen Saskatchewan's work week would contravene the spirit, if not the letter, of the 1957 ILOConvention concerning the Reduction of Hours of Work to Forty a Week.
The Saskatchewan Party's consultation paper directly attacks collective bargaining rights enshrined by ILO conventions and recommendations. It questions whether employers should "be able to apply to the Labour Relations Board to rescind a certification order" on the grounds that a union is "not representing its employees".
