Teleworking and labor conditions in Canada
| Autor | Chris Grisdale |
| Cargo | Associate, Farris Vaughan Wills & Murphy LLP |
| Páginas | 118-128 |
IUSLabor 2/2017
TELEWORKING AND LABOR CONDITIONS IN CANADA
Chris Grisdale
Associate, Farris Vaughan Wills & Murphy LLP
Introduction
Canada is a liberal market economy and as such contract law largely governs the
employment relationship. Since the early 1950s, employees have been able to negotiate
the terms and conditions of employment collectively, creating two separate legal regimes
for unionized and non-unionized employees. Whereas non-unionized employees derive
their rights from the individual contract of employment and the common law, the rights
of unionized employees stem from the collective agreement.
These separate legal regimes are somewhat different across jurisdictions. Employers are
either federally or provincially regulated, but not both. Federally regulated employees
account for six per cent of the Canadian workforce; the balance is provincially regulated.
Provincial workplace law is comprised of the common law and an array of provincial
legislation, which varies across provinces and territories. Employment standards, human
rights, and health and safety legislation applies to both non-unionized and unionized
employees. The common law does not apply to unionized workers.
Neither national nor subnational governments have enacted legislation that specifically
regulates telework. As a result, telework arrangements largely depend on contract and the
relative bargaining power of employers and workers, which is, of course, different inside
and outside the unionized workplace. A 2011 Statistics Canada survey found that 11 per
cent of employees did some of their work at home, a figure unchanged since a similar
2008 survey. Statistics Canada plans to release new data on telework on November 29,
2017. It is anticipated that the figure will increase. Businesses are actively looking for
ways to reduce their costs, which include reducing their real estate footprints in large city
centres. At the same time the cost residential properties in large city centres is prohibitive
for many workers, increasing commute times.
1. Is there any regulation on teleworking in your legal system?
i. The Federal J urisdiction
In 1996 the International Labour Conference adopted the Home Work Convention (No.
177) (the “Convention”) and the Home Work Recommendation (No. 184) (the
“Recommendation”). The Convention requires governments to enact legislation that
treats teleworkers and wage earners equally for the purposes of workplace rights and
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