UPDATE: Federal Government Passes Anti-Scab Legislation Which Will Come into Effect in June 2025
The government of Canada has passed new federal “anti-scab” legislation (“Bill C-58”) which will amend the Canada Labour Coder (“CLC”) to greatly restrict the use of replacement workers during strikes and lockouts in federally regulated workplaces. Bill C-58 received royal assent on June 20, 2024, but it will not come into effect for twelve (12) months, such that it will come into effect on June 20, 2025. This is despite that Bill C-58 was originally slated to come into effect eighteen (18) months after it received royal assent.
Accordingly, federally regulated employers with unionized workplaces now have about one year to consider how they will navigate the substantial new restrictions on the use of replacement workers during legal work stoppages, while also minimizing the adverse operational impacts that inevitably result from such work stoppages.
Most notably, Bill C-58 will amend the CLC to:
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substantially expand the scope of the existing prohibition against the use of replacement workers during legal strikes and lockouts, subject to certain exceptions;
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prohibit employers from using the services of bargaining unit members during a legal strike or lockout, subject to certain exceptions; and
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create harsh potential penalties for employers that violate either of these prohibitions.
For more details on the new/expanded prohibitions, exceptions thereto, and associated penalties, as well as relevant background information, please read our original blog regarding Bill C-58 here.
The Bottom Line
As discussed in our original blog, the amendments to the CLC under Bill C-58 are highly detrimental to Canadian employers that are federally regulated and have unionized workforces. This is because the new/expanded anti-scab prohibitions will greatly diminish such employers’ ability to mitigate the adverse operational impacts of legal strikes, while also making legal lockouts a more impractical tool for employers to gain leverage in collective bargaining disputes.
That said, there are fortunately some exceptions which employers can potentially leverage in order to mitigate the adverse operational impacts of legal strikes and to make lockouts more feasible. However, whether such exceptions are available in any given case must be carefully assessed in advance, in order to ensure compliance and avoid costly potential penalties.
If you have any questions regarding the amendments discussed above, or if you require any assistance with navigating a collective bargaining dispute/work stoppage, please do not hesitate to contact us for expert legal advice and guidance.
