Bermuda Working Days

I’m in Bermuda right now, doing some work, and otherwise enjoying a nice break from Toronto February blas.  I arrived to a bus strike which started apparently because a bus driver had been fired and the other drivers and their union responded by walking off the job. In Canada, this would be an illegal strike, and would no doubt have created calls for the contracting out of all bus drivers.  The matter was referred to arbitration and the buses went back on the road.
Bermuda is an interesting place. The standard of living is very high here.  It has the highest Gross National Income in the world, and has an average annual income for citizens near $60,000 (U.S.).  It also has a very high cost of living, about 280% higher than Canada!  That demands an employment law regime that produces high wages.
I’ve been learning about Bermuda labour and employment laws.  In many ways, the laws here are superior for employees than in Canada.  For example, an employee in Bermuda cannot be fired unless the employer has “cause”.  In other words, employers need a good reason to fire someone.  This is not the case for nonunion employees in Canada, who can be dismissed for no reason at all, provided only that the employer gives them notice.   If a Bermuda employer has concerns about an employee’s performance, it has to give the employee warning of this, explain what is necessary to improve, and be given 6 months to improve.  Very civilized.
Employers must also provide employees with a statement of conditions of employment at the time of hiring, something I have argued that Canadian governments should require.  The statement must include a  summary of the contractual terms, including job title, place of work, the gross wage or methodology of calculating the gross wage and the intervals at which it is paid, rules about overtime pay, days and hours of working, holiday entitlement, sick leave, notice provisions, pension provisions, and any disciplinary and grievance procedures.  Here is the form that employers must complete. I like this requirement because it forces the employer to learn its legal obligations, since most employers will not put in writing terms that violate employment standards laws.  Plus, a statement of employment terms also educates the workers and makes it easier to identify terms of dispute should issues arise later.
In the case of redundancies due to a lack of work, the employer must provide notice (equal to a pay period), plus 2 weeks’ pay for year of service for the first 10 weeks and 3 weeks per year of service thereafter, to a maximum of 26 weeks.  That 26 week cap is similar to what we have in Ontario, though here access to severance pay only applies to mass layoffs or layoffs by large employers.  There is no minimum wage here, but the government is considering one, and the discussions began with an amount of $20 (U.S.)!
Interestingly, the labour laws in Bermuda share some similarity to our own.  Unions can apply to be “certified” after collecting membership cards on behalf of at least 35% of employees in a proposed bargaining unit, and there are protections from anti-union interference and intimidation by employers.  The right to form and join unions is also part of Bermuda’s Constitution, as explained in this information page on the government union’s website.
It’s interesting to look at how other countries manage their employment relations.  It reminds us that every country in the world regulates work, and that Canada’s approach is but one way of doing things.