AP/PPAS-POLS 3190: Public Service Workers and the Right to Strike

This report, prepared for AP/PPAS-POLS 3190, analyzes the right of Canadian public service workers to strike, focusing on the federal public service. It begins by outlining the role of the Public Service Commission and the historical context of labor relations in Canada, including the evolution of union rights and the impact of legislation like the Public Service Staff Relations Act (PSSRA). The report explores the legal framework governing strikes by public service employees, including exceptions and restrictions, and examines the impact of strikes, both legal and illegal, on public services and the public. It references key events, such as the 1968 postal worker strike and the 1979 Ontario jail guard strike, to illustrate the complexities of this issue. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of balancing the right to strike with the need to maintain essential public services, and the role of negotiation and conciliation in resolving disputes within the Canadian public service.

Running head: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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“Public Service Commission (PSC)” is a public service organization operating for
safeguarding the rights of Canadians (Gaspard, 2019). This type of organization are generally
independent and individually represented, and are non- partisans, and work for better hiring,
arrangement promotional activities of public servants, as well as give impartial and nonpartisan
services. They only have to report Parliament, while finalizing the annual as well special reports.
The main role of a Public Service Commission is to hire people for public services, and then
promote then to parliamentary heads. There are many issues where people call for a strike, due to
inconvenient situations, but strike is the right, which is only issued by government to certain
people, under the act “Industrial Disputes Act” (Kaushika, 2018). In case of public service
people, under the act calling for a strike is an “unqualified statutory right”.
The thesis statement in relation to this study is scrutinizing the right of Public Service
Workers to call for a Strike. The main focal point will be analyzing the rights of Public service
workers in Canadian Public Service Organization.
According to the scientific management theory of Frederick Taylor, implementation of
more humanitarian perspectives must be included in public administration, removing the
authoritarian way of operating. The effect of Taylor’s theory was started to be followed in public
administration after World War II. The concepts of compensations, flexible working
environment, developed administrative structures to provide ethical environment, was all
included in the “scientific management theory” of “Frederick Winslow Taylor”. The same
theories are followed in the present “New Public Management” that is implemented in Public
Administration (Nhema, 2015). Taylor also implemented socio scientific approach on Public
Administration, which implemented humanitarian concepts that serves common people interest.

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Under “Industrial Disputes Act”, strike is an unfair labor practice of which interferes with
government activities; they are banned to participate in such kind of activities as it also interferes
with the work of federal agencies. Although there are exceptions to these situations, there has
been cases where public union services or public service commission services have called for a
strike. In case of involvement in activities like strike, public service workers can interfere in
certain situations like if there is strike related to scarcity of jobs, then the judge can interfere only
for the sake of betterment of public health and safety (Slater, 2017). Although, in case of certain
situations, where a public service worker involve in this kind of activity that goes against the
federal agency, then that person promotion as well as position in public service organization will
be jeopardized. Therefore, according to present situations only Judge has the right to act or
withdraw any activities related to strike and for the betterment of public. In the presence of laws,
where the jurisdiction prohibits their public service workers to call for a strike, can be imposed
with a jail sentence. Nevertheless, the issue of public service workers calling for a strike is a
contemporary as well as a controversial topic.
There are many arguments for or against from the starting of 1990, and have magnifies in
the last 20 years. The concept of strike by public service workers increased at the time of
recessions and fiscal crises in the 2000(globalnews.ca, 2020). Strikes of that time was generally
referred as “taxpayer revolts”, as at that time citizens denied paying taxes, as tax were collected
to provide public service workers with high salary and benefits. As there are many arguments
and statements, for or against related to the right of public services employees to strike, this
study will provide a plethora of information regarding the rights of the Canadian Pubic
Commission services to strike, according to the legislation and rules that bind them.

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According to the “Public Service Staff Relations Act”, “Bill C-170”, it gave an allowance
to the workers of “Canada Public Service Organizations” provide rights to “arbitration”, and
“right to strike” in the year 1967(www.tbs-sct.gc.ca, 2020). There was a struggle for the past two
years, in acquiring the right to strike and arbitration, and before allowing this act approximately
75 years ago many employees of federal services were distributing among union groups. In 1891,
the first union group was established named as “Federated Association of Letter Carriers
(FALC)”. Thereafter, in 1918, this group “FALC”, arranged for the first illegal strike involving
federal government employees, which won them the right to fairer wages and working
time(Fudge, 2015)). The law and the changes brought by the union members proclaimed
significant changes between labor relations and federal governments; it was passed on to the
provincial and territorial governments. It was February 23, 1967, when Canada was the third
country to be listed along “Sweden and France”, to give an allowance to their “public service
workers” to participate in a “strike”. The “Civil Service Association of Canada” as well as “Civil
Service Federation” conjoined to form “Public Service Alliance of Canada”, where they used to
solve issues of their members (Quesnel, 2016).
According to Etherington, (2015), Canadian Governments have been quite resilient in
providing bargaining rights to both private and public employees. Under the “Public Service
Staffs Relations Act(PSSRA)”, provided allowance for public employees with bargaining rights
more to the public service employees than the private employees, they are allowed to be
representative in union groups and have rights to take methods one or two methods of disputes
and negotiations. Although, the federal government allows their workers to go on a strike,
without hampering their work timings, which proclaims the responsibility of safeguarding safety
and security issues of common public.

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There are many laws that are similar to private sector employees, for example, in the year
1944, “provincial government of Saskatchewan”, approved bargaining rights to both private and
public employees equally. In the bargaining rights, the right to strike, one to two methods of
negotiation and dispute clearing is included. The “Saskatchewan Act” was approved right after
the “United States Wagener Act”, where both public and private employees can proclaim rights
to bargaining under the Trade Union Act, 1944. Although, this right was threatened during the
huge strike towards operation of “Saskatchewan Power Corporation”, and they lost all the
authorities to grant bargaining or strike participation rights to public services employees. In
contrary to this, government has outlawed all the bargaining rights that goes against public
interest.
There are certain rules by which an employee of public service may adhere to the rights
of strike. In some situations, Canadian designated public service worker cannot participate in a
strike without a bargaining unit or member. According to Lynk (2015), under the “Public Service
Staffs Relations Act”, governments restricts public service employees in various perspectives,
and does not allow right to strike to all employees (Thomas & Tufts, 2016). The first reason, for
this, is that Canadian Government have never intrinsically declared that strikes by public service
employees are illegal, as Parliament did not make any such huge change in respect to
participation of public service employees in strikes. Secondly, although “Canadian Labor
Relations Statutes”, approved the “right to strike”, courts have proclaimed that this kind of rights
adheres to common law right to strike, and allows only certain people the allowance of right to
strike (canadianlabour.ca, 2020). In case of designated employees, there is no provisions of right
to strike in any circumstances under the regulation “Procedure of Public Service Staffs Relations
Board” (PSSRB), 1993. According to these regulations, designated members of the Public

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Service Commission will have to present their arguments or disputes within a given time
provided by the Board.
The PSSRA policy approved by Schedule 1, part 1, is applicable to all the public services
in Canada, where “Her majesty” is the employer appointed and represented by the Treasury
Board. In case of lawful strikes, there are advance planning and in case of unlawful strikes, the
employer of the employees will be withdrawn and the strike will be stopped. An example of
legal strike by federal workers was done only a year after the enactment of the PSSRA act or
policy, where the Canadian postal workers, had a long history of “militancy”. Militancy refers to
numerable occasions where postal workers threatened to go on strikes in case of issue arising
from injustice made on working premises, unethical work conditions. Nevertheless,
“Departmental management” was lacking staffs and people were overburdened with work, and
even there were lack of preparation in collective bargaining. During this time, apart from
threatening to go on a strike, many employees walked out of the official premises out for 17
consecutive days, which eventually hampered the working of the Commission. Therefore, the
employees formulated the series of failure in conciliation, another strike after enactment of
PSSRA act, in the year 1968. The strike had a tenure of 22 days, from July 18 to August 8 1968,
as government had refused raise in wages. There were several issues that was raised in
Conciliation Board, the government and union could not agree with the strike peoples, as the
demand of the excessive wage was disapproved. Although, the strike did not cause much hamper
in communication processes, and no such effect in the work. There were some public
inconvenience, but eventually the positive aspects of PSSRA act was not reflected. Therefore,
Thomas and Tufts, (2016), states that, right to strike can give public service working individuals
the right to portray their grievances, and clarify the issues with the head of the commission.

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Every public service organizations, should give bargaining rights to their designated and non-
designated employees as well. The non-designated employees must be given a hearing by the
process of conciliation or adverse situations can arise. In case of banning the right to strike there
are decrement in giving hearing to conflicts or disputes, this can endanger the Commission or
Departmental Management, as employees will be dissatisfied. The dissatisfaction will lead to
other costly forms than a strike-increased turnover, absenteeism, grievances.
Another example of an illegal strike done by public services is the strike done by Jail
Guards in Ontario, in 1979. The strike was about gaining bargaining rights for themselves, and
the strike has a tenure of three days, which had an intense and adverse effect on the “Provincial
Government”. It was the first strike in Ontario, and it had adverse effects on “Ontario Public
Service Employees Union (OPSEU)”, as well as on the common public. The consequences
resulted in 23 days of jail of the President, the employer of Ontario jail, and disciplinary actions
were taken against the participating Protestants. The strike made a huge impact on common
public, and got a lot of media attention, as the “Industrial Relations System”, saw a sudden
downfall due to this strike. The strike made a huge impact, and it questioned the stability of labor
relations in “Ontario Public Service”. Later on it was observed that serious actions were taken, in
case of keeping a bargaining unit in public services, but the Ontario Guard’s did not derive any
profit or raise in wage as they were put into large bargaining unit of 20,000 employees (Stevens
& Templeton, 2016).
Therefore, from the above discussion it has been concluded that, Canada Public Service
Commission has approved the rights to strike to their public service employees, but it has been
stated that some selected employees are liable to participate in strikes under the PSSRA act. It
has also been observed through the example of legal and illegal strike, that it affects in much

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greater extent in case of protecting common people safety and security norms. A strike
formulated by Public Service employees can portray an uncertainty among common people, as
they are liable to the services of common people. In case of bargaining rights of the public
service organizations, strike rights have the necessity in expressing their grievances. For this
reason, the strike by public service organizations can be both beneficial and destructive.

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References
canada.ca, 2020. Public Service Commission - Canada.ca. Retrieved 12 March 2020, from
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Etherington, B. (2015). The Right to Strike under Charter after Saskatchewan Federation of
Labour: Applying the New Standard to Existing Regulation of Strike
Activity. Canadian Lab. & Emp. LJ, 19, 429.
Fudge, J. (2015). Constitutionalizing labour rights in Canada and Europe: Freedom of
association, collective bargaining, and strikes. Current Legal Problems, 68(1),
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Gaspard, H. (2019). Canada’s Official Languages: Policy Versus Work Practice in the Federal
Public Service. University of Ottawa Press
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20(http://lawjournals.stmjournals.in/index.php/jlil/article/view/69)
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Slater, J. E. (2017). Public Workers: Government Employee Unions, the Law, and the State,
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