More legislation review responses expected
REGINA — With the deadline for submissions on Saskatchewan’s labour legislation review about three weeks away, the government has received more than 230 responses, and more are expected, according to Labour Minister Don Morgan.
But the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour’s president, Larry Hubich, says unions remain concerned that the period for consultation isn’t long enough and the process won’t be adequate.
“The vast majority of them are from individuals, but the ones that are not individuals are a really diverse group — a hotel, a town, a school division, a construction company, a resource company,” Morgan said of the responses, noting he wasn’t able to say what positions are being advocated via the submissions.
“It was an aggressive timeline to try and do the whole process,” Morgan added about the three months provided for written replies. “I think most people have risen to the occasion and the responses are coming in, in a timely manner. We think we’ve allowed adequate time.”
Written feedback will be accepted no later than July 31. At the beginning of May, Morgan announced the comprehensive review of current labour legislation, seeking to restructure and reorganize in order to modernize it, to eliminate inconsistencies and to clarify legislative applications.
Morgan noted “there will certainly not be a consensus on all of the things that are there,” adding that means “the government has to decide what kinds of things are best.”
Under consideration are essential services legislation, union financial disclosure, notice require- ments, collection of employees’ wages after business closure, variable hours of work to meet needs of both employers and employees and indexation of the minimum wage.
The intent is to bring forward new legislation in the fall, including a fix for the province’s essential services legislation that was struck down by the court earlier this year.
An advisory committee comprised of subject-matter experts representing labour and business from across Saskatchewan has also been created to provide advice, Morgan noted.
But Saskatchewan Federation of Labour president Hubich, who sits on that advisory committee, said Friday that the labour movement in the province has concerns.
“From the get go, we’re not satisfied that what the government is doing is an appropriate process or that it actually complies with the … decision that found the essential services legislation to be unconstitutional,” he said.
“The other concern that we have is that they’re attempting to do a consultation on 15 different pieces of labour legislation in a 90-day window. They’re consulting longer on what should go in the time capsule than they are on labour legislation that has been created over 100 years,” he added.
“Now, obviously, we’re going to participate because to not participate, they’ll accuse us saying, ‘we gave you an opportunity to participate in this process and you decided not to’ and we’re not going to play that game,” Hubich said, noting he thinks there is “an ideological orientation that shines through” in the government’s approach.
“We are engaged and we and our affiliates will be submitting very comprehensive briefs and submissions to the government.”