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NBU successful in fighting for casual workers' rights

Court decision provides significant improvements to the working conditions, wages and benefits for casual workers employed by the provincial government.

Fredericton (22 July 2013) — New Brunswick Union (NBU/NUPGE) has reached agreement with the Government of New Brunswick (GNB) on several memoranda relating to certain employees who were previously excluded from membership.  These employees, commonly referred to as “casuals” and not employed for six continuous months, were not considered “employees” under the Public Service Labour Relations Act (the PSLRA), and therefore were ineligible for union membership, until June, 2010.

The affected employees are members of the Professional Services for Students in the Public School System (PSPS) and the Paramed and Specialized Health Care Professional (SHCP) bargaining units.

What happened?

In September of 2005, NBU/NUPGE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) came together and took GNB to court, challenging the constitutionality of the PSLRA’s exclusion of casuals. The New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench agreed with the Unions and, on June 17, 2009, issued a ruling that the exclusion of casuals from union membership violated the right to freedom of association in section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Court gave GNB one year to bring the PSLRA into compliance with the Charter. GNB responded by enacting Bill 35, An Act to Amend the Public Service Labour Relations Act, on June 17, 2010. The Bill removed the stipulation that a casual had to work for six continuous months in order to be an “employee”. The Bill also set out a process for how unions could initially negotiate with GNB on behalf of the casuals, with the resulting agreements to become part of the relevant existing collective agreements. In future rounds of collective bargaining, it will be up to the parties to negotiate the terms and conditions of employment for casuals as part of the regular bargaining process.

What rights are now given to casual government workers?

The initial Memoranda of Agreement for casuals includes the following benefits:

  • for casuals who work on a seasonal basis, recall for future seasonal work will be done on the basis of seniority, subject to that employee having performed the work satisfactorily in the past
  • for casuals within the PSPS component, a guarantee of either 80% of the minimum rate payable in the collective agreement for the relevant classification, or whatever was being paid prior to September 13, 2012 (whichever is greater)
  • vacation pay of four per cent (or six per cent for those with eight or more years of continuous service) per the Employment Standards Act (ESA)
  • pay for public holidays per the ESA and
  • the agreements for the previously excluded casuals within the Paramed and SHCP are slightly different, as they will receive an all inclusive rate of pay, which includes compensation for vacation and holidays.

Casuals now entitled to union representation

All agreements include the right to file a grievance (and be represented by NBU/NUPGE) on any of these matters.

In addition to those benefits, as members of NBU/NUPGE casuals can get union representation on matters arising from any rights under the ESA or Human Rights Act. As long as the alleged violation of any of those legislated rights arises from her or his employment relationship with GNB, the union can file a grievance regarding the alleged violation directly with the employer on behalf of a casual.

In order to help enforce these rights, whether legislated or negotiated, casuals have access to NBU/NUPGE's Union Activists (local representatives in workplaces who are well-versed on your collective agreement and trained to represent and advise members), as well as the union's professional labour relations staff at our office in Fredericton.

Casuals now have a voice in the workplace and in the union

Most importantly, casuals now have a voice. Casuals can have input into how their terms and conditions of employment are negotiated going forward by becoming active in the union, either as a Union Activist, a bargaining unit executive member, a bargaining team member, or simply by attending union meetings and participating in telephone town halls. Casuals can also participate in the pre-negotiation consultation and post-negotiation ratification processes.

It’s been over seven years since the Casual Challenge was filed, and while it’s satisfying to be able to have at least some terms on paper that can be enforced on behalf of casuals, the ultimate goal is to be able to build on and improve those rights in future rounds of collective bargaining, with casuals as full participants in the process.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE