Objectives

1. Objectives The student will be able to: • Explain public sector significance • Identify a public sector worker • Describe the evolution of bargaining • Discuss recent developments in public sector labour relations • Differentiate between public and private sector bargaining • Describe public sector dispute resolution

2. The Importance the Public Sector • Essential nature of work performed, i.e. teachers, health care, garbage collection, snow removal, etc. • No readily available substitute • Sizeable share of workforce and union membership • In state of crisis with deficits

3. The Public Sector Worker • Types of public sector workers • Federal and provincial civil services • Municipalities • Health care • Education • Steady decline in employment percentage • Union density rates higher than private

4. Public Sector Unionism • Developed much later than private sector • Most workers not unionized until 1967 Public Service Staff Relations Act • Emerged fully in very short time

5. Early Public Sector Unionism • Early years • Public employee associations • Believed that nature of work ruled out collective bargaining • Didn’t like adversarial tone of traditional unions • National Joint Council for all federal government workers had no real power • Transition to new federal government granted bargaining rights

6. Impacts of PSSRA After PSSRA (1967) gave federal employees the right to join unions: • Public sector unionization grew rapidly • Given right to binding arbitration or conciliation-strike • Essential services designated

7. End of the Golden Age • Between 1960s and 1975 negotiated significant improvements in wages and working conditions • In 1975 federal government imposed three-year program of wage and price controls • Governments began to take harder line • Unions responded with increased militancy

8. The 1980s: Wage Controls • Wage controls again in 1980s • Quebec rolled back public sector wages • Some governments removed right to strike • Sweeping changes to labour legislation in some jurisdictions

9. 1990s Retrenchment and Restructuring • Continuing public sector wage freezes • Suspension of collective bargaining • Governments reduced size and scope of operations • Growing lack of job security • First full scale public strike in 1991

10. 1990s Retrenchment and Restructuring • Similar action throughout provinces • Unpopular municipal restructuring • Labour parties in power also downsizing • Centralization of decision-making • Frozen wages and reductions in pay

11. The Twenty-First Century • Late 1990s most governments moved from a deficit to surplus • Gradual collective bargaining resumption • Provincial governments take tough measures including back to work legislation in late 1990s

12. Distinctions Between Public and Private Sector Bargaining • Dual role of government as employer and legislator • Greater diffusion of public sector management authority • Many departments have both administrative and political role and different funding sources • Political power vs. economics • Strikes can benefit public body financially • Lack of “bottom line”

13. Distinctions Between Public and Private Sector Bargaining • Public sector employee differences: • More likely female, professional and white-collar • Pay and employment equity issues • Reimbursement of professional dues issue • Same job security, income levels, hours of work, workload concerns as private sector

14. Distinctions Between Public and Private Sector Bargaining • Union differences: • Inherently political • Political action and publicity campaigns • Representation quite fragmented, particularly in health care and education • Different unions may compete for same group of workers

15. Distinctions Between Public and Private Sector Bargaining • Legislative and policy differences: • Greater degree of variation in dispute resolution methods • More restriction on public unions’ rights • May be several different laws that apply to public sector unions • Restrictions on who can strike • Local political considerations play role

16. Bargaining Unit Determination • Scope of bargaining unit may be spelled out in legislation • May be legislative requirement that certain union represents employees • Scope of bargaining issues • Severely limited in public sector which may hurt process • Restrictions are a source of conflict

17. Public Sector Dispute Resolution Procedures Alternative procedures: • Back-to-work legislation • Imposition of binding arbitration • Conventional interest arbitration • Final-offer selection • Choice of Procedures • Controlled strike

18. Future of Public Sector Bargaining • Extremely conflict-ridden • Increase in workloads/lack of job security • Tough stance on public sector wages make it impossible for employees to make up losses • Escalation of severe tensions

19. Future of Public Sector Bargaining • Fryer Committee, task force of managers, union officials, and academics established • Found a serious lack of trust and respect between parties • Chief recommendation was for new institutional framework for labour– management relations • Recommended creation of a Public interest Disputes Resolution Committee and a Compensation Research Bureau • Public Service Labour Act replaced the PSSRA in April 2005

20. Future of Public Sector Bargaining • If public sector is to have the same creative solutions as the private sector, they will need the full range of bargaining tools available • Fist step is to expand the scope of bargaining