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ARTICLE · 22 JULY 2022

Five New Bargaining Demands, Not Seen Since 1978. Or Maybe 1918.

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Inflation is rising. Interest rates are up. And, for the first time in a long time, labour disputes are making headlines. CN Rail was struck on June 18, 2022.

CanadaEmployment and HR
Martin K. Denyes
Martin K. Denyes
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Inflation is rising. Interest rates are up. And, for the first time in a long time, labour disputes are making headlines. CN Rail was struck on June 18, 2022. Workers at The Bay hit picket lines on June 22, 2022. Via Rail was on the verge of a labour dispute last week.

Employers across the board are seeing new lists of "late-pandemic" / inflationary / supply chain related demands. Six months into 2022, we surveyed our lawyers who have been sitting at and supporting employers at bargaining tables and asked them, what are we seeing that we haven't seen since our most senior colleagues were articling students? Here are five noteworthy developments:

  1. Remote work. Unions are seeking to negotiate work from home programs into collective agreements. These go both ways – protections for employees who want to work from home and for those who don't want to work from home. They are also seeking to limit the use of electronic monitoring tools in relation to employees

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