Alberta Consulting on Essential Services Legislation

The Alberta government is holding consultations on proposed legislation to protect essential public services while upholding public sector workers’ right to meaningful collective bargaining dispute resolution.

The goal of the new legislation is to align the law with the January 2015 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan, where it was found that the right to strike is fundamental to the collective bargaining process and is constitutionally protected under section 2(d) (Freedom of Association) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (We wrote about this case on Slaw here.)

However, the Supreme Court of Canada also asserted that many employees in the public sector provide essential services and the maintenance of these essential public services during a work stoppage is a proper concern for governments and public sector employers.This means that legislation can restrict the right to strike for some employees involved in providing essential services, so long as these restrictions do not substantially interfere with meaningful collective bargaining.

Therefore, Alberta is being proactive and proposes to create a form of essential services legislation that provides a right to strike for many public sector employees, while also ensuring that the health, safety and well-being of Albertans is protected in the event of a public sector work stoppage.

The government has developed an Essential Services Discussion Guide that provides more information on the proposal to help direct a consultation process on the proposed legislation.

The document indicates that the proposed legislation model rests upon two basic concepts:

• That the parties to a collective agreement should negotiate an essential services agreement
• That some form of impartial third-party adjudication is required to resolve any disputes that may arise during the negotiation and implementation of essential services agreements

The legislation will provide a high-level definition of “essential services,” but the parties will be expected to negotiate fair and responsible essential services agreements in order to ensure that meaningful collective bargaining can take place while essential services are maintained.

Concluding that it may be that in some sectors or bargaining units, a large number of employees would be required to maintain essential services, such that a strike by the rest of the employees would not be meaningful. In such a case, legislation might continue to prohibit strikes and lockouts for those units, and instead utilize binding arbitration as a meaningful alternative mechanism to resolve bargaining disputes.

Comments and feedback from interested stakeholders will be accepted until October 30, 2015.

You may provide your comments via email to essentialservices@gov.ab.ca or send written submissions to:

Essential Services Survey
c/o Labour Relations Policy and Legislation
Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour
7th Floor, Labour Building
10808 – 99 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 0G5