NUPGE and SGEU have written to Labour Minister Rob Norris to urge the Saskatchewan government to cooperate with the ILO and provide a response to the complaint.
Regina (5 Feb. 2009) - A United Nations agency that has been asked to hear a formal complaint against Saskatchewan's new anti-union labour laws has had to delay its work because the government has not fulfilled its responsibility to provide a formal response.
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), on behalf of the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees' Union (SGEU/NUPGE), a component of the National Union, filed a complaint last June with the International Labour Organization (ILO). The complaint argues that Bill 5, An Act respecting Essential Public Services and Bill 6, An Act to amend the Trade Union Act, undermine Saskatchewan workers' right to freedom of association.
NUPGE recently learned that as of early November the ILO had not received a response from the Saskatchewan government, and as a result, its Committee on Freedom of Association was forced to adjourn its examination of the complaint.
"It's an international embarrassment for our province that the government has so far ignored a simple request from such a well-respected body of the UN as the International Labour Organization," said SGEU president Bob Bymoen.
"There are tens of thousands of unionized workers in this province who have lost basic collective bargaining rights. They deserve to have this case heard. Unwarranted delays are just not acceptable," he added.
ILO Convention No. 87 – The Right to Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize - was ratified by Canada and all provincial and territorial governments in 1972. It is considered the ILO’s most fundamental convention.
"For the government to erode these rights and then not respond to the ILO when a complaint is made suggests a fundamental disregard for the rights of all workers," Bymoen added.
Both NUPGE and SGEU have written to Labour Minister Rob Norris to urge his government to cooperate with the ILO and provide a response to the complaint.
In the National Union's letter to the Minister, NUPGE's national president James Clancy said that the union had been advised by the ILO that the "Committee on Freedom of Association were forced to adjourn its examination of the complaint at its November 2008 meeting since it had still not received your government’s response to the complaint."
"Mr. Minister, if your government has not already done so, I encourage you to instruct your officials to respond on behalf of your government to the ILO’s request within the next couple of weeks. This would enable the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association to consider our complaint and your government’s response to it at its next session in March 2009."
"The government needs to be accountable for its actions," added Bymoen. "We certainly hope and expect that the Minister of Labour will choose to cooperate with the ILO," he concluded.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE
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