Collective-Bargaining Law of Ontario'

THE Province of Ontario, Canada, passed an act to provide for collective bargaining between management and labor, which received Royal assent on April 14, 1943. No specific penalties were provided for infractions, and strikes were not prohibited under the terms of the law.

A collective-bargaining agency, as defined in the act, means any trade-union or other association of employees which has collective bargaining among its objects, but does not include any such union or association of which the administration, management, or policy is dominated, coerced, or improperly influenced by the employer in any manner, whether by means of financial aid or otherwise. An employer is defined as "any person or association of employers employing within the Province [of Ontario] one or more persons." The Labor Court as defined in the Judicature Act, or a judge thereof, is to review cases arising under the collective-bargaining law. The Judicature Act was amended on April 13, 1943, to establish a branch of the High Court of Justice for Ontario, to be known as the Labor Court of Ontario, which was to be empowered to exercise such jurisdiction as the legislature might confer upon it. Previously there was no labor court in the Province.

Obligations of bargaining agency.-When applying for certification, every collective-bargaining agency is required to file with the registrar a true copy of its constitution, rules, and bylaws, and a statement of the names and addresses of its officers, and thereafter shall file a true copy of any amendments to its constitution, rules, or bylaws, or a statement of any change in the names and addresses of its officers forthwith upon the making of such amendment or change. An agency which is in default with respect to the foregoing requirements may not be certified as a collective-bargaining agency, and if a certificate has been issued it may be revoked.

Every collective-bargaining agency which collects fees from its members must, upon request of any of its members, furnish to him or them, without charge, a financial statement of its affairs. The statement is to cover the end of the last fiscal year and must be certified to be true by the organization's treasurer. If the court so orders, a financial statement is to be filed with the registrar within such time as the court may determine. Such a statement of the affairs of the organization must cover the period to the end of the last fiscal year and must be verified by the affidavit of the organization's officers or by such of its officers as are responsible for handling and administering its funds. A copy of the statement is to be furnished to such persons as the court may direct.

Obligations and rights of employees.-A collective-bargaining agency and its acts may not be deemed to be unlawful by reason only that one or more of its objects are in restraint of trade. Employees may form, join, or assist any collective-bargaining agency, and may select or designate any collective-bargaining agency for the purpose of bargaining collectively with their employers. A provision which requires all or any specified employees of an employer to be members of a specified collective-bargaining agency, certified pursuant to the provisions of the collective-bargaining law, is not to be deemed to be

I Data are from report by Curtis T. Everett, United States consul at Toronto.

in conflict with or in contravention of any of the provisions of that law. However, no such provision applies to a member of a learned or scientific profession.

Obligations of employers.-No employer may fail or refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of a duly certified collectivebargaining agency. Neither may the employer discriminate against, coerce, restrain, or influence an employee in any way in exercising his rights under the collective bargaining law.

Duties of Labor Court.-It is the duty of the Labor Court to ascertain what unit of employees is appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining, and to certify that a collective-bargaining agency represents the majority of the employees in such units and is thus entitled to bargain collectively with an employer.

Social-Security Proposals for Canada

PROPOSALS for assuring economic security for Canadian citizens were incorporated in a report submitted to the House of Commons Committee on Social Security, by the Minister of Pensions and National Health, on March 16, 1943. In Canada, a considerable measure of social security has been provided for through Federal enactments establishing unemployment insurance, and pensions for disabled veterans, for the aged, and for the blind, and by Provincial legislation covering workmen's compensation, sickness and maternity benefits, and widows' and mothers' allowances. There is as yet, however, no nation-wide plan of social security. The report does not contain specific draft measures for legislation, but sets out methods by which existing legislation can be improved and extended, and outlines principles for the construction of a comprehensive social-security system suited to Canadian conditions.

The specific measures proposed in the report are the extension of the present system of unemployment insurance, and establishment of an unemployment-assistance program for those not covered by insurance; a national system of health insurance including medical and dental care and hospitalization, but providing under a separate scheme cash benefits to compensate for time lost through sickness; retention of existing workmen's compensation provisions, and establishment of benefits for disablement from nonindustrial causes; revision of the present old-age pension system, and its eventual replacement by retirement pensions on a contributory basis; pensions for widows and orphans; children's allowances; cash grants for funeral expenses; and maternity benefits for woman wage earners.

The first positive measure necessary in providing social security in the post-war world, it is stated, is a "program which will make work available, or, in other words, which will offer wages rather than subsistence maintenance to the farthest extent to which it is possible." Much unemployment is to be expected as a result of the huge curtailment in the labor market in the transition from war to peace, which, it is estimated, may last for as little as 6 months but might be nearer 3 years. Unemployment insurance is only one weapon to be used in the attack on this unemployment. For this period of dislocation, it is stated, the employment reserve for Canada will not be safe unless it is part of a billion-dollar program of public works for the first post-war year. It should be made clear, the report emphasizes, that there is no parallel and nothing in common between a public-investment program planned as part of the grand economic strategy of the post-war years

1 Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Report on Social Security for Canada, prepared by Leonard C. Marsh for the Advisory Committee on Reconstruction. Ottawa, 1943

and the relief works carried on during the depression of the 1930's. Although no detailed plan for such works is presented in the report, it is stated that labor absorption should not be the primary purpose of such a program, but plans should be made with a view to contributing to productivity; to stimulating further investment, including investment by peace-time industry; and to contributing to social welfare where no immediate or industrial objective is in view.

The second positive measure needed in a full-employment program will be a system of facilities which will help to equip people to find work or to train them in new skills if there are no openings for those they already possess. For many classes of workers, it is pointed out, the proper requisite in the event of unemployment is not maintenance in idleness, nor even employment on works projects, but training.

Recommendations

Kind and amount of benefits.-Throughout the plan the distinction between the "employment" risks and the universal risks (common to all, without regard to employment) is emphasized. The "employment" insurances are the most familiar for Canada, which already has a Federal unemployment-insurance system and has workmen's compensation systems in the different Provinces. The latter system will probably not be subject to much change except for extension and greater standardization as between Provinces. Because of the limitations in the coverage of unemployment insurance, it is considered that plans for unemployment assistance must be adopted before the end of the war. The logical location for the service dealing with unemployment aid is said to be the Dominion Employment Service, although the insurance. benefits and unemployment assistance must be kept separate as far as recipients are concerned.

It is considered that cash sick benefits should be closely assimilated to unemployment-benefit rates, as also would the rates for maternity benefit, subject to the possibility of a minimum rate being established for this class of benefit as a special measure.

Nonindustrial disability and invalidity and old age would be covered by a pension system. The basic age for retirement would be 65 for men and 60 for women. It is proposed that the income-maintenance benefits payable under the universal insurances should be principally at a standard rate, instead of being made dependent on past income or wages, or the actual amount of premium or contribution paid. Similar rates and conditions would be effective for pensions for permanent disability, for widows, and for old-age retirement. If these are based on the minimum standard for assistance, rates of $30 monthly for the breadwinner and $15 for his wife are suggested in the case of retirement for permanent disability or old age, making the combined income of husband and wife $45. The standard unit rate of $30 is suggested for a single woman or a widow, although it is considered widows might be paid $40 for the first year only. Higher rates might be paid if retirement is deferred beyond the pensionable age. A standard rate of $100 for funeral expenses is suggested, with rates of $65 and $25 for juveniles and infants. Children's allowances, varying according to the age of the child, would complete the scheme. In order to get the scheme in operation, subminimum rates might be set at the outset as an alternative to any deferment. A variation in

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this respect might be restriction of payment for the first child in families receiving any insurance benefit or public assistance. Children's allowances would be wholly a tax-financed grant.

Because of differences in wage levels and in costs or standards of living in different sections of the country, it was decided a graduated scale of benefits would have to be adopted. This, it was thought, would not condemn the country or the social-security system to perpetual low standards, as anything which can be done to raise wage levels generally, or the wages of the lowest groups, would react favorably throughout the whole system.

Payments for disability, widowhood, and old age are relatively continuous, in contrast to most of the employment risks, and it was considered, therefore, that because of this fact and the relative costli ness of these benefits, it was not possible to set an objective higher than the maintenance of the minimum. Some flexibility would be introduced in the system by children's allowances.

Administration and financing.-Dominion administration is advocated for the universal risks covered by medical care, child maintenance, funeral benefits, and pensions for disability, widows and orphans, and old age, with a contributory system for all branches except child maintenance; both child maintenance, and the transitional deficits. under the old-age retirement system, would be covered by taxes. Under the medical-care system there would be Dominion-Provincial cooperation. There would be Dominion direction coordinated with Provincial schemes for the National investment program, training and guidance, and unemployment-assistance projects, which would all be financed by tax revenue. For unemployment. sickness benefits related to unemployment insurance, and maternity benefits, there would be Dominion administration, and the systems would be contributory, while workmen's compensation would be financed by employers and administered by the Provincial workmen's compensation boards.

Cost of Program

As the report does not contain any actuarial calculations, and offers a number of alternatives on rates and conditions of benefit, no exact computations are made of the total cost of the program. An analysis of the experience of other countries, however, shows that a comprehensive social-security system requires from about 10 to 12%1⁄2 percent of national income. Not all of this would be new expenditure, since the contributory revenue is merely the redistribution of existing income. The application of the 121⁄2-percent ratio to the present Canadian national income would produce 1 billion dollars, although some reduction from war-inflated figures may have to be calculated for the first post-war years. The amount to be met from insurance contribu tors in a billion-dollar program would be about $400,000,000. Assessed on a gainfully occupied force of 4,000,000, of whom 3,000,000 are wage earners and the others are farmers, independent employers, etc., this would permit rates of 75 to 90 cents a week for farmers and rural workers, 75 cents to $1.85 for employees of various wage levels, and an average of about 90 cents per employee for employers. These rates are said to be deliberately approximate and average calculations, and there would be considerable leeway for variation around these averages through the operation of both graduated and "degressive" scales.