Share
HALIFAX – Unifor is welcoming a landmark decision from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court declaring Bill 148, the Public Services Sustainability (2015) Act, unconstitutional. Bill 148 has been found to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, causing workers to lose out on wages and benefits that should rightfully be theirs.
“We will always fight for the trade union rights of Canadian workers,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “For more than a decade, our members have lived with legislation that stripped away their collective bargaining rights. Bill 148 was anti-worker legislation, plain and simple. The court has now affirmed what we have said from the beginning—Bill 148 undermined free and fair collective bargaining and violated workers’ constitutional rights.”
Unifor is also calling on Premier Tim Houston to respect the court decision and refrain from wasting further taxpayer dollars on an appeal. After years of costly and harmful anti-worker legislation, Premier Houston needs to put an end to this and focus on making amends to these workers.
“Governments have a duty to consult and negotiate in good faith,” said Jennifer Murray, Unifor Atlantic Regional Director. “Our members in health care, long-term care, community services and beyond carried the burden of this unconstitutional law. Today’s decision recognizes the hardship they endured and the importance of protecting their rights moving forward.”
Bill 148 was imposed in 2015 by former Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil’s Liberal government. The bill did three things that directly interfered with the right to full and free collective bargaining:
- It imposed a non-negotiated wage pattern on the entire public sector (0%, 0%, 1.0%, 1.5% and an additional 0.5% on the last day of the agreement) including over 3500 Unifor members
- It removed long-standing negotiated articles from agreements ending the retirement allowance/public service award as of April 1, 2015.
- It prohibited an arbitrator from awarding anything higher than the above-noted wage pattern.
“We fought this legislation from the very beginning,” said Susan Gill, Unifor National Representative. “Bill 148 affected real workers, their families, and their retirements. We are hopeful this government will not attempt to reintroduce or replicate legislation that so clearly violates the Charter.”
