Just prior to beginning the holiday season themselves, the
Senate of Canada gave federally regulated employers an early gift:
the passing of Bill C-525. The Bill, which received Royal
Assent on December 16, 2014, enacts changes to the Canada
Labour Code, the Parliamentary Employment and Staff
Relations Act and the Public Service Labour Relations
Act. The legislation effects significant changes with
respect to the certification and decertification processes for
federally-regulated employees; for this reason the legislation is
known as the Employees' Voting Rights Act (the
"Act").
The reason it is described above as a gift to employers is that
the Act changes the representation process on both sides (i.e.
certification of a union and decertification of a union) to make
each one a fairer process than the ones currently in place, often
said to be skewed toward the unions, and therefore unfair to both
employers and employees.
