Canadian Law of Work Forum (CLWF)
  • Home
  • About
    • Professor David Doorey
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
  • Submissions
  • Student Blog Initiative
  • Home
  • About
    • Professor David Doorey
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
  • Submissions
  • Student Blog Initiative
Canadian Law of Work Forum (CLWF)
Law of Work Archive

Ontario Violates International Human Rights Laws… Again.

by David Doorey November 24, 2010
written by David Doorey November 24, 2010

It comes a no surprise that the International Labour Organization (ILO) has once again condemned the Ontario government for violating international human rights laws.  There have been more successful complaints against Canada for violation of freedom of association before the ILO than against any other country in the aworkersworld.  Makes you so proud to be Canadian, doesn’t it, eh?
This time, the offending statute is the Agricultural Employees Protection Act, 2002. That is the statute at issue in the case Fraser v. Ontario, which was argued almost a year ago before the Supreme Court of Canada, and yet no decision has been issued.
Here is the decision of the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association.
You will recall that the AEPA grants agricultural workers a right to form and join a union, protections against employer threats and intimidation in response to the exercise of these rights, and right for these employees to approach their employer collectively and ask to bargain conditions of employment collectively.  However, the employer can listen and then tell the workers to take a hike, and the workers have no right to engage in a lawful strike like most other private sector workers in Canada.  The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the statute violates Section 2(d) of the Charter (freedom of association), because it fails to ensure the employees’ right to collective bargaining and to some form of dispute resolution, such as interest arbitration.  That is the decision now before the Supreme Court.
The ILO decision is interesting this time round.  The Committee notes that under ILO law, collective bargaining must be a “voluntary” process.  The Ontario government argued that the AEPA allows for voluntary bargaining, since employees have a right to ask employers to voluntarily bargain with them as a collective.  According to the Government, the fact that the employers can respond to this request by telling the employees to go chew on a cucumber is consistent with the “voluntary” nature of collective bargaining.
The ILO Committee responded by saying that the fact that no collective bargaining at all is taking place in the agricultural sector is continued evidence that in practice there is not real entitlement to bargain under this legislation.

The Committee continues to consider the absence of any machinery for the promotion of collective bargaining of agricultural workers constitutes an impediment to one of the principle objectives of the guarantee of freedom of association: the forming of independent organizations capable of concluding collective agreements.  The Committee request the Government puts in place appropriate machinery and procedures for the promotion of collective bargaining in the agricultural sector.

This decision seems to confirm that the ILO believes that the Ontario government has an obligation to create a duty to bargain on the employer, rather than just a duty to listen to the employees.  This reasoning is consistent with opinions expressed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the B.C. Health Services decision, where the Court ruled that “freedom of association” includes a duty to bargain in good faith.
Should we expect the Supreme Court of Canada to reach a similar decision–that Section 2(d) ensures that the machinery be put in place by Canadian governments to ensure that employees are able to actually capable of concluding collective agreements? If so, then perhaps the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Fraser will be upheld.

0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is the Director of the School of HRM at York and Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and on the Advisory Board of the Osgoode Certificate program in Labour Law. He is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program and a member of the International Advisory Committee on Harvard University’s Clean Slate Project, which is re-imaging labor law for the 21st century

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

previous post
Reminder: Two Events Today in Toronto (Tuesday November 23)
next post
Russo v. Kerr Bros.: What Happens When an Employee Who is Constructively Dismissed Keeps Working?

You may also like

A Cross Country Update on the Card-Check versus...

October 3, 2018

A Successful Strike Vote is All That Stands...

September 16, 2018

Unifor Posts Photos of Replacement Workers as Gander...

September 10, 2018

A Wrongful Dismissal Case and the Absence of...

August 29, 2018

China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New...

August 27, 2018

The Latest Hot E-Commerce Idea in China: The...

August 27, 2018

The Trump Administration Just Did Something Unambiguously Good...

August 27, 2018

Unstable Situations Require Police In Riot Gear Face...

August 27, 2018

Trump’s War on the Justice System Threatens to...

August 27, 2018

Putin Invites Trump to Moscow for Second Meeting...

August 27, 2018

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 218 other subscribers

Follow Us On Social Media

Twitter

Latest Tweets

CLWFFollow

CLWF
Retweet on TwitterCLWF Retweeted
RSandillRicha Sandill@RSandill·
19h

@SCLSclinic and I were so fortunate to represent this client last year. I am thrilled that this decision brings more clarity for family status accommodations rights amidst a pandemic that has tested parents, caregivers, and families like never before. https://twitter.com/CanLawWorkForum/status/1364605259071561730

CLWF@CanLawWorkForum

New from @RSandill (counsel for applicant), discussing important new "family status" discrimination decision from OHRT:

"Kovintharajah v. Paragon Linen & Laundry: When Failure to Accommodate Child Care Needs is “Family Status” Discrimination"

https://lawofwork.ca/13360-2/

Reply on Twitter 1364627677785821185Retweet on Twitter 13646276777858211851Like on Twitter 13646276777858211853Twitter 1364627677785821185
Retweet on TwitterCLWF Retweeted
TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey@TheLawofWork·
19h

Here's my latest in @jacobinmag.

If Ontario's labor laws applied in Alabama, the Amazon vote would have been held months ago so workers could get back to their jobs. Instead, the NLRA permits Amazon to conduct a months' long onslaught of anti-union propaganda. https://twitter.com/jacobinmag/status/1364613560425275392

Jacobin@jacobinmag

Amazon workers in Alabama are voting on whether to unionize, but the company is bombarding them with anti-union propaganda. In Canada, by contrast, votes are held quickly, making it harder for companies to stack the deck — a model that can work in the US. http://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/amazon-alabama-canada-labor-law-union-vote

Reply on Twitter 1364623976174092316Retweet on Twitter 13646239761740923168Like on Twitter 136462397617409231613Twitter 1364623976174092316
CanLawWorkForumCLWF@CanLawWorkForum·
20h

New from @RSandill (counsel for applicant), discussing important new "family status" discrimination decision from OHRT:

"Kovintharajah v. Paragon Linen & Laundry: When Failure to Accommodate Child Care Needs is “Family Status” Discrimination"

https://lawofwork.ca/13360-2/

Reply on Twitter 1364605259071561730Retweet on Twitter 13646052590715617304Like on Twitter 13646052590715617304Twitter 1364605259071561730
Load More...

Categories

  • Alberta
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Australia
  • British Columbia
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Childcare
  • Class Action
  • Collective Bargaining
  • Common Law of Employment
  • Comparative Work Law
  • competition law
  • construction
  • COVID-19
  • Diversity
  • Employee Classification
  • Employment Insurance
  • Employment Regulation
  • Europe
  • Financial Industry
  • Fissured Work
  • Freedom of Association
  • frustration of contract
  • Gig Work
  • Health and Safety
  • Health Care
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • Interest Arbitration
  • International Law
  • Labour Arbitration
  • Labour Economics
  • Law of Work Archive
  • Legal Profession
  • Manitoba
  • Migrant Workers
  • Minimum Wage
  • Nova Scotia
  • OLRB
  • Ontario
  • Pension Bankruptcy
  • Privacy
  • Public Sector
  • Quebec
  • Real Life Pleadings
  • Saskatchewan
  • Scholarship
  • Strikes and Lockouts
  • Student Post
  • Supreme Court of Canada
  • technology
  • Transnational Law
  • Uncategorized
  • Unions and Collective Bargaining
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Women and Work
  • Wrongful Dismissal
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive
Menu
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive

2020. Canadian Law of Work Forum. All Rights Reserved.