Author of the article:Josh Aldrich
Publishing date:Jul 05, 2021 • 1 week ago • 2 minute read •
The new amendment would eliminate an employee's right to refuse to work on Sunday if they agreed in writing to work Sundays when they were hired, if the employee is covered by a collective agreement that the does not allow them to refuse to work on Sundays or the retail business has fewer than four people, including the owner, employed for the sale of goods and services at any one time. PHOTO BY NATALIE MAERZLUFT /REUTERS File
UFCW Local 832 president Jeff Traeger is sounding the alarm over a potential amendment to the Employment Standards Code which would impact an employee’s right to refuse to work on Sundays.
The amendment is an about face from last year when Traeger said Finance Minister Scott Fielding wanted to avoid a grandfathering system. The new amendment would eliminate an employee’s right to refuse to work on Sunday if they agreed in writing to work Sundays when they were hired, if the employee is covered by a collective agreement that the does not allow them to refuse to work on Sundays or the retail business has fewer than four people, including the owner, employed for the sale of goods and services at any one time.
Traeger said he is worried about the slippery slope this will put in play which would lead to the elimination of an employee’s right to refuse to work on Sundays.
“That might work for me when I’m a student and that might work for me when I’m in my 20s, but we have lots of people who are working at retail grocery who this is their career and once they have a family and they start having children, more and more they want to start having time off on the weekend and this is going to make that impossible,” he said.
Traeger said this could potentially impact on the hiring of people who do not indicate they are willing to work those shifts from being hired at all.
UFCW Local 832 represents about 9,200 grocery workers which have collectively bargained agreements. Traeger also sits on the Labour Management Review Committee and did not find out this change was being considered until three weeks ago when it was posted for public engagement.
Long-awaited legislation to eliminate holiday and Sunday shopping restrictions received royal assent this past December. Manitoba was the only province in Canada where such restrictions on retail stores were previously still in place.
Fielding said in a press release the amendment would streamline the regulations for employers and employees.
“Previous legislation contained a complicated list of exclusions for employees to refuse work on Sundays, which were criticized as outdated and cumbersome,” he said. “The new proposed exclusions are modernized and simplified.”
John Graham, the director of government relations for the Prairie Division for the Retail Council of Canada, said Manitoba is the only jurisdiction currently with a right to refuse to work on Sunday legislation. He said this adjustment to the legislation is important for retail businesses to better plan, as it currently exists there was an issue with people hired specifically to work Sunday shifts filing paperwork to refuse to work those shifts.
“It’s about making sure employees apply for the shifts they’re most interested in and most available to work for,” he said. “It helps ensure that employment standard rules continue to keep up with the common practices across Canada.”
jaldrich@postmedia.com
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Twitter: @JoshAldrich03
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