Tag: freedom of association

Blurred lines: Managers may have right to bargain collectively

by Valérie Gareau-Dalpé In several jurisdictions across Canada, the issue of unionization of managers and supervisors is a thorny one. In many cases, unionization is restricted to “employees,” a definition from which managers are excluded. In the province of Québec, the exclusion is based partly on the potential for conflicts of interest in having managers […]

Ontario court finds government’s ‘intransigent’ bargaining strategy unconstitutional

by Chris Pigott In 2015, we reported on the Supreme Court of Canada’s “New Labour Trilogy”—three landmark constitutional law decisions from January 2015 that called into question basic aspects of Canadian labor law. Those decisions sparked a massive debate in the labor law community as to whether Canadian workers had a brand new set of […]

BC Court of Appeal takes a narrow view of the SCC’s New Labour Trilogy

By Christopher Pigott In a previous article, we reported on the Supreme Court of Canada’s “New Labour Trilogy,” a set of three landmark constitutional law decisions released in January 2015 that raised questions about basic aspects of Canada’s labor relations system. Unsurprisingly, the decisions sparked a huge debate in the Canadian labor law community as […]

Collective Bargaining – Now It’s Constitutionally Protected

by Donovan Plomp McCarthy Tetrault In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has decided collective bargaining is a right protected in the national constitution. The court’s extension of “freedom of association” under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to include a right to collective bargaining is a reversal of previous Supreme Court decisions.