Unit 5 - Labour & Employee Relations

Question 1

Industrial Relations

Answer 1

Includes all the employment issues and relationships governing the workplace. Includes both union and non-union relations. Check out examples in handout.

Question 2

Employee Relations

Answer 2

Refers to the direct employer employer-employee relationships. Largely has to do with policies. Check out examples in handout.

Question 3

Labour Relations

Answer 3

Refers to the relationship between a union or professional association representing employees and their employer.

Question 4

What would dismissal without cause for a non-union look like? What would be the best case scenario?

Answer 4

1. Action under employment standards legislation
2. Legal action taken in courts

Best case scenario in pay in lieu (payment during working period instead of working) & reasonable notice.

Question 5

What would dismissal without cause for a union look like? What would be the best case scenario?

Answer 5

Can seek redress (correction) & reinstatement. Protection from arbitrary dismissal. It would involve grievance-arbitration with burden of proof on the employer.

Question 6

Employment Standards Act

Answer 6

Outlines minimum employment standards and governs almost every aspect of the employment relationship. It is provincially governed, unless federally regulated.

Question 7

Provide some examples of employment standard governed by the act.

Answer 7

• Minimum wage
• Hours of work and overtime
• Vacation and paid holidays
• Pregnancy and parental leave
• Notice of termination for individuals and groups

Question 8

Who administers the Employment Standards Act? What are they responsible for?

Answer 8

The Ministry of Labour

• -> Enforces the Employment Standards Act, and its regulations.
• -> Provides information and education to employers and employees, making it easier for people to understand and comply voluntarily.
• -> Investigates possible violations and resolves complaints.

Question 9

Human Rights Code

Answer 9

Prohibits actions that discriminate against people based on protected grounds in a protected social area. Provincially governered.

Question 10

What are the 5 protected social areas in the Human Rights Code?

Answer 10

1. Accomodation (housing)
2. Employment
3. Contracts
4. Good, services & facilities
5. Membership in unions, trade or professional associations

Question 11

Pay Equity

Answer 11

Pay equity looks to close the part of the wage gap that results from systemic gender discrimination in employer pay practices.

Question 12

Employment Equity Act

Answer 12

Designed to ensure equitable participation in the labour force for four “designated” groups of people that are considered to be under under-represented and, therefore, disadvantaged.

Addresses the right to be employed, rather than addressing the compensation received for working.

Question 13

Which groups does the employment equity act apply to?

Answer 13

Applies to federally-regulated industries, Crown corporations and other federal organizations with 100 employees or more, as well as portions of the federal public administration (which includes the Canadian Forces and the RCMP).

Question 14

What are the 4 designated groups that are protected under the Employment Equity Act?

Answer 14

Women
Aboriginals
Persons with Disabilities
Members of visible minorities

Question 15

How do Organization’s Respond to Unionization?

Answer 15

• Union Acceptance – accept the fact that they will be unionized
• Union Resistance – active opposition
• Union Substitution – eliminating employee desire by providing superior employment conditions
• Union Removal – union busting leading to decertification

Question 16

Define collective bargaining

Answer 16

Process by which the union & employer negotiate the terms of the first collective agreement or renewal of a previous one.

Question 17

Distributive Bargaining or Positional Bargaining

Answer 17

Win-lose approach

Question 18

Interest-Based, Integrative, or Mutual Gains Bargaining

Answer 18

Win-Win approach to bargaining with attempts to find a mutually beneficial solution.

Question 19

Intra-Organizational Bargaining

Answer 19

The bargaining spokespersons have to respond to two demands – those from across the table and those from their own political organization.

Question 20

Bargaining Zone

Answer 20

Where the unions minimum acceptable demands and management’s highest offer overlap.

Question 21

Conciliation / Mediation

Answer 21

Conciliation officer can assist through mediation - it’s a facilitation process much like marriage counseling. They don’t make any decisions & recommendations are not binding.

Question 22

Interest Arbitration

Answer 22

Used to settle collective bargaining deadlocks & decisions are binding.

Question 23

Conventional Interest Arbitration

Answer 23

Both parties submit their demands & offers, and the arbitrator may choose some in favor of the union and others in favor of management in order to craft their own agreement.

Question 24

Final Offer Arbitration

Answer 24

Both parties submit their final offer and the arbitrator chooses 1.

Question 25

First Agreement Arbitration

Answer 25

A statutory mechanism that allows either party in unsuccessful negotiations to apply to the Labour Board to direct the settlement of a first collective agreement by arbitration. In some jurisdictions, it is a mandatory requirement to go straight to interest arbitration instead of striking if it’s a first agreement in order to help prevent a work stoppage.

Question 26

Med-Arb

Answer 26

A combo of arbitration/conciliation where mediation occurs, and if fails, the mediator shifts to an arbitrator role

Question 27

What is contained within the collective agreement?

Answer 27

Provisions governing the terms and conditions of the employment relationship.

It also contains the rights, privileges, and duties of the employer, the trade union, and the employees.

Question 28

Collective Agreement Provisions

Answer 28

1. Rights & obligations of parties (purpose, definitions, management rights, union recognition)
2. Conditions of employment (wages, hours of work,
   overtime, shift premium vacations, paid and unpaid leave)
3. General work rules (layoffs & transfers)
4. Work environment (anti discrimination articles, health & safety, discipline procedures)

Question 29

Management / Residual Rights

Answer 29

These affirm an employer’s right to run the enterprise as it did before unionization, except for changes triggered by the clauses in the collective agreement.

Question 30

Union Security Clause

Answer 30

A provision in a union contract requiring employees, as a condition of employment, to maintain union membership or pay union dues or requiring an employer to check off dues from employees’ wages.

• These recognize the union, union rights, officials, and the collection of dues.
• They also addresses whether employees are required to be union members.

Question 31

Closed Shop

Answer 31

Employers are required to hire and employ only members of a particular union.

Question 32

Open Shop

Answer 32

Union membership is not required as a condition of employment.

Question 33

Union Shop

Answer 33

Employer may hire employees who are not union members, but each employee in the bargaining unit must join the union.

Question 34

Agency Shop

Answer 34

All employees in a bargaining unit, as a condition of employment, are required to pay union dues or an equivalent amount, whether or not they choose to be
union members

Question 35

Rand Formula

Answer 35

A form of agency shop whereby management automatically collects dues on behalf of the union by deducting it from ee pay.

Question 36

Union Density

Answer 36

Union Density: The percentage of workers in the labour force who are union members.

Question 37

Yellow dog contract

Answer 37

The former practice of requiring employees to sign a contract indicating they would not join a union. Today this is illegal.

Question 38

Whipsaw

Answer 38

A union negotiating tactic that plays one employer off against another. The union uses the negotiation results of another group to better their position.

Question 39

Job Control

Answer 39

Only individuals in a particular job classification can carry out that work.

Question 40

Estoppel

Answer 40

When a clause in the collective agreement is not
upheld, it can be claimed that the party it advantages has
given up their right to that clause.

Question 41

Bumping

Answer 41

Bumping: The ability of a displaced worker to ‘bump’ another worker with lower seniority from their job.

Question 42

Work to rule

Answer 42

A form of strike resulting in a reduction in productivity.

Question 43

Essential Service Agreement

Answer 43

This restricts the ability to strike for workers whose absence may significantly impact public interest.

Question 44

Business Agent

Answer 44

Employed by the union to represent their affairs, negotiate agreements, and handle grievances.

Question 45

Shop Steward / Union Steward

Answer 45

Someone that is employed by the employer’s organization and elected by his/her peers to be their on on-site representative.

Question 46

Chief Steward

Answer 46

The employer’s most senior shop steward.

Question 47

Who is the bargaining agent?

Answer 47

The union

Question 48

Grievance

Answer 48

• An alleged violation of the collective agreement and a claim for redress of any damages.
• It provides a forum for the resolution of disputes arising from the collective agreement without a work stoppage.
• Required by labour legislation
• What constitutes a “grievance” is usually defined in a collective agreement.

Question 49

Application Grievance

Answer 49

When the parties agree on the meaning of the clause but not on its “application” to a situation.

Question 50

Interpretation Grievance

Answer 50

When the parties do not agree on the meaning of the clause.

Question 51

What are the most common grievances?

Answer 51

Discharge and discipline are the most common grievances.

Question 52

Alternate Dispute Resolution

Answer 52

Arbitration and mediation are considered alternative
dispute resolution methods, but so are conciliation, fact finding, facilitation, mini trials, negotiation, and the use of ombudspersons.

Question 53

Rights arbitration

Answer 53

When arbitration is used to settle grievances

Question 54

Primary picketing

Answer 54

Takes place at an employer’s place of business

Question 55

Secondary picketing

Answer 55

Occurs at a place other than an employer’s place of business.

Question 56

Policy Grievance

Answer 56

A complaint by the union that an action of management (or its failure or refusal to act) is a violation of the agreement that could affect all who are covered by the agreement.

Question 57

Community of Interest

Answer 57

A group of factors, such as duties, skills, working conditions, reporting lines, and other job-related issues, to be considered in determining whether a group of employees should be grouped together as an appropriate bargaining unit.