A project agreement is an agreement between the owner/developer of a construction project and the construction trade unions that will perform that construction work. A project agreement modifies the terms of otherwise applicable construction collective agreements for purposes of a specific construction project or a defined set of construction projects. Without exception, Project Agreements provide that there will be no strikes or lockouts on the covered construction project or projects, thereby removing a significant source of risk to the owner/developers of these projects. Project agreements typically replicate the principal economic terms of the otherwise applicable construction collective agreements, although there may be specific modifications to those terms.
Labour relations statutes in most Canadian jurisdictions contain provisions that specifically allow for the negotiation of project agreements. This is in contrast with the United States (see Project Labor Agreements) where there is no specific provisions pertaining to project labor agreements in the National Labor Relations Act. In Ontario, the Conservative Government amended the Labour Relations Act (Bill 139) to facilitate the adoption of Project Agreements that cover multiple projects as well as projects initiated subsequent to the commencement of a Project Agreement.
The Canadian statutory tradition of supporting and facilitating project agreements has led to their adoption in a wide range of circumstances in both the public and private sector. Major construction projects that were completed under the terms of project agreements include: various private sector industrial projects (e.g., Hudson Bay Mining Improvement Project in Flin Flon, Tembec Paper Mill Expansion in Pine Falls, and Co-op Oil Refinery in Regina), major public sector projects (Highway 407 Construction in Ontario, Confederation Bridge project in Prince Edward Island, and multiple projects undertaken by various provincial hydro-electric authorities.) Had the City of Toronto won its bid to host the Olympics, construction related to the Olympics would have been carried out under the terms of a Project Agreement.
Governments, in their capacity as owner/developers of construction projects, have used project agreements to secure training and employment opportunities for groups that might otherwise not have access to skilled construction work. For example, the Project Agreement governing the construction of the Vancouver Island Highway provided for explicit employment equity hiring focused on women and members of First Nations. [1]
Labour laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer and union. Individual labour law concerns employees' rights at work also through the contract for work. Employment standards are social norms for the minimum socially acceptable conditions under which employees or contractors are allowed to work. Government agencies enforce labour law.
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.
In labor law, a union shop, also known as a post-entry closed shop, is a form of a union security clause. Under this, the employer agrees to either only hire labor union members or to require that any new employees who are not already union members become members within a certain amount of time. Use of the union shop varies widely from nation to nation, depending on the level of protection given trade unions in general.
The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated.
An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union as a condition of hiring or continued employment.
The duty of fair representation is incumbent upon U.S. labor unions that are the exclusive bargaining representative of workers in a particular group. It is the obligation to represent all employees fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination. Originally recognized by the United States Supreme Court in a series of cases in the mid-1940s involving racial discrimination by railway workers' unions covered by the Railway Labor Act, the duty of fair representation also applies to workers covered by the National Labor Relations Act and, depending on the terms of the statute, to public sector workers covered by state and local laws regulating labor relations.
The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board is an independent quasi-judicial tribunal that administers the collective bargaining and "grievance adjudication systems" in Canada's federal public service and in Parliament.
Labor relations is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work – in its broadest sense – and how this connects to questions of social inequality. It explicitly encompasses unregulated, historical, and non-Western forms of labor. Here, labor relations define "for or with whom one works and under what rules. These rules determine the type of work, type and amount of remuneration, working hours, degrees of physical and psychological strain, as well as the degree of freedom and autonomy associated with the work."
A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company that regulates the terms and conditions of employees at work. This includes regulating the wages, benefits, and duties of the employees and the duties and responsibilities of the employer or employers and often includes rules for a dispute resolution process.
A community benefits agreement (CBA) in the United States is a contract signed by community groups and a real estate developer that requires the developer to provide specific amenities and/or mitigations to the local community or neighborhood. In exchange, the community groups agree to publicly support the project, or at least not oppose it. Often, negotiating a CBA relies heavily upon the formation of a multi-issue, broad based community coalition including community, environmental, faith-based and labor organizations.
An unfair labor practice is discrimination by an employer in Japan against a worker who is associated with a union, or refusal by an employer to negotiate with a trade union, or interference in the activities of a union. Unfair labor practices are defined under Article 7 of the 1949 Trade Union Law. They are ruled on by Labour Relations Commissions.
Alexander and Wall v Standard Telephones & Cables Ltd [1991] IRLR 287 is a UK labour law case on when a collective agreement is incorporated into an employment contract.
South African labour law regulates the relationship between employers, employees and trade unions in the Republic of South Africa.
The Employment Information Directive 1991 of 14 October 1991, also known as the "Written Statement Directive", or the "Employment Information Directive" was an EU Directive which regulates European labour law for the purpose of making workers' contracts transparent. It has been superseded by the Employment Information Directive 2019.
The Fair Work Act 2009 is an Australian law passed by the Rudd Government to reform the industrial relations system in Australia. It replaced the Howard Government's 2005 WorkChoices legislation. The law established Fair Work Australia, later renamed the Fair Work Commission. It is a key piece of legislation, providing for terms and conditions of employment in Australia, and also sets out the rights and responsibilities of parties to that employment.
Albany International BV v Stichting Bedrijfspensioenfonds Textielindustrie (1999) C-67/96 is an EU law case, concerning the boundary between European labour law and European competition law in the European Union.
JI Case Co v National Labor Relations Board321 US 332 (1944) is a US Supreme Court case dealing with US labor law.
The Workplace Democracy Act is a proposed US labor law, that has been sponsored by Bernie Sanders and re-introduced from 1992 to 2018. Among its different forms, it would have removed obstacles to employers making collective agreements, established an impartial National Public Employment Relations Commission to support fair collective bargaining, required that pensions plans are jointly managed by employee and employer representatives, changed the definition of an "employee" to ensure every person who works for other people has labor rights, and repeal all "right to work" laws.
An Act to restore Ontario's competitiveness by amending or repealing certain Acts is a law adopted on April 3, 2019 during the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. Critics of the bill argue that, if passed, it will repeal a number of consumer protections, labour laws, anti-crime rules, clean water rules, child safety rules, and environmental protections in the Province of Ontario.
Benedict McGowan and Others v Labour Court and Others [2013] 2 ILRM 276; [2013] IESC 21; [2013] 3 IR 718 is an Irish Supreme Court case, where an appeal was granted and the court made a declaration that the provisions of Part III of the Industrial Relations Act are invalid considering the provisions of Article 15.2.1 of the Constitution of Ireland. This court questioned the method by which wages and other benefits were set on a collective basis across numerous sectors.