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______________________________________________________________________________Stewart McKelveyDoing Business in Atlantic Canada• employer participation in or interference with the formation or administration of a trade union.Strikes/LockoutIn all provinces, strike action is prohibited during the term of an existing collective agreement.DecertificationDecertification is the process by which union members may apply to revoke a union’s representationalrights. Decertification may take place when the labour board is satisfied that the union has lost thesupport of the majority of the employees in a unit. The timeliness for a decertification varies fromprovince to province but is generally dependent on the same timeliness factors involved in a certificationapplication.SuccessorshipWhen an employer sells, leases or otherwise disposes of a business, the union’s rights follow thebusiness. An employer that purchases all or part of a business is bound by the collective agreement as ifit is a party to it and inherits any incumbent unions’ bargaining rights.Federal StatutesThe Canada Labour CodeThe statute governing federally regulated employers is the Canada Labour Code (the “CLC”). The CLCsets out employment standards protections for employees. These standards apply to both the unionizedand non-unionized employee, except where the CLC provides otherwise. The CLC also provides thestatutory mechanism for dealing with industrial relations in federally regulated and unionized workplaces.As well, the CLC legislates occupational health and safety responsibilities on employers and employeesin federally regulated workplaces, whether unionized or non-unionized.The CLC provides that an employer must pay the minimum wage as legislated by the province where theemployee is usually employed; this requirement is generally applicable regardless of occupation, status,or work experience. The CLC provides that the standard hours of work of an employee will not exceedeight hours in a day and 40 hours in a week.When an employee is required to work in excess of these standard hours of work, the employer must payovertime pay at a rate not less than one and a half times the employee’s regular rate of wages. TheCLC’s overtime provisions do not apply in respect of employees who are managers, superintendents,exercise management functions, or who are members of the following professions: architectural, dental,engineering, legal or medical.The CLC also contains provisions regarding leaves of absence, such as paid vacation, paid sick leave,paid holidays, family and other medical leave and pregnancy/parental leave.Human RightsThe Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination and provides a complaint-drivenenforcement mechanism. An employer is prohibited from refusing to employ or continue to employ anindividual or to differentiate adversely in relation to an employee on a prohibited ground of discrimination.The prohibited grounds of discrimination include: race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex,sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability and conviction for which a pardon has beengranted. Where the ground of discrimination is pregnancy or child birth, the discrimination is deemed tobe on the ground of sex.It is not a discriminatory practice if an employer’s refusal, exclusion, expulsion, suspension, limitation,specification or preference in relation to any employment is based on a bona fide occupationalPage 63