Saskatchewan unions and the NDP are stepping up efforts to delay the passage of the Sask Party's new Saskatchewan Employment Act.
"Modernization of laws requires thoughtful and inclusive review," wrote Hugh Wagner, general secretary of the Grain and General Services Union, in an open letter. "That takes time. There is no harm in taking the time needed for review and reflection, but there is a worrying potential for real damage if passage of this new legislation is rushed."
Wagner was a member of labour minister Don Morgan's advisory committee on the Act, but was unsatisfied with the outcome of consultations.
"The committee reached relative consensus on most issues relating to the changes," he wrote. "This consensus is not reflected in Bill 85."
The NDP was highly critical of the government's consultation commitment to consultation when the new labour laws were proposed last spring and when the legislation was tabled in the Legislature attacked it as being anti-labour.
"Willfully attacking workplace balance is a clear case of the Sask Party's anti-worker ideology trumping common sense," said Saskatoon Centre MLA David Forbes, the NDP's labour critic. "The Sask Party has put worker recruitment, the economy and the middle class households' bank accounts in jeopardy."
Specific criticism of the bill includes paying workers with unregulated payroll cards, rules that allow replacing overtime pay with banked time, loosening the regulations on 10-hour shifts and essential services legislation.
Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit said it is disingenuous for the NDP to criticize the Act. "They're not even saying they don't support it, they're just asking to delay it to the fall," he said.
Ottenbreit also defended the process saying by the time the bill is passed into law this spring it will have been a year of consultation and tweaking.
"It doesn't mean you're going to take every piece of advice, that's impossible," he said. "You hear everybody out and then you do what's in the best interest of the province."
Ottenbreit said there is very little likelihood the government will delay passing the Act.
