The Poll the Government Didn't Want Albertans to See

AFL Analysis of Employment Standards Survey

August 2008

Almost three years ago the AFL launched a FOIP request that should have been routine. We asked for the questions and results of a public opinion survey conducted about Employment Standards. Generally opinion surveys are released to the public without hesitation.

Not this time. The government refused to release the records at all. It may have been the first time the public was denied access to a poll paid by Albertans' tax dollars.

The AFL appealed the decision to the Privacy Commissioner. After a long and twisting process which took more than two years, the Commissioner finally ordered the release of the document.

The survey is now almost three years old, and so one would assume the results are not very relevant today. Except for one fact.

The 2005 Employment Standards Review was killed by the government. Not a single section of the Code or its regulations was changed due to the review. Our 20 year old Code continues today in the same shape it was in 1988.

The AFL hoped the survey results might show why the consultation failed, why the government refused to make any amendments. We expected to see that employers opposed changing the Code, and that is why the government kept the status quo.

But once we finally got to examine the survey, we realized that was not the situation. The survey does not tell us why the government continues to refuse to amend the Code.

What it does tell us is more surprising.

The Survey

The survey randomly polled 400 employers and 400 workers across Alberta. It asked them a series of questions about controversial sections of the Code, such as exemptions for farm workers and domestic workers, overtime provisions, limits on hours of work, statutory holiday pay and so on.

For most issues, the employers and workers AGREED about what needed to happen. This is quite unexpected given both that these issues are rather controversial and that in the area of employment law, employers and workers rarely agree. In general both employers and workers said that the Code needed to change and that the rules needed to be made tougher.

Here are some examples:

• 77% of employers and 82% of workers said that the Code should provide for unpaid general leave for workers needing to tend a family emergency, attend a funeral or care for a sick relative.
• A majority of both groups (56% and 68%, respectively) believe workers should be paid for statutory holidays, even if it falls on their day off. Neither provision is in the Code currently.
• A majority of both employers (56.5%) and workers (50.2%) stated they thought the government was going in the wrong direction on the issue of 12-14 year olds working in restaurants. (It is particularly interesting to note employers were more opposed to 12-year-olds working than workers.)
• Only 15% of employers and 16% of workers believe excluding farm workers from basic employment protections is fair The vast majority of Albertans want some or all of the exclusions removed. 

The last example is particularly interesting, as it shows a level of sophistication among Albertans. The poll shows that Albertans want some consideration for family farms in the legislation. The survey demonstrates that Albertans distinguish between a small family operation and a big industrial farm.

Naturally, there are issues where employers and workers disagree, but they were the minority of issues. the only major areas of disagreement were:

• 41.9% of workers want a guaranteed rest period per day along with the current 12-hour daily limit. Only 28.6% of employers wanted a legal rest period.
• 55.4% of workers wanted to either lower the number of hours before overtime is paid and/or give worker the right to refuse overtime. Only 17% of employers agree. (In fact, 13.6% of employers wanted to RAISE the number of hours before overtime.)

On the bulk of issues, employers and workers agreed that change was needed, and they generally agreed on the nature of that change. This is rather remarkable.

What does it mean?

In short,it means that the government is out of step with Albertans when it comes to employment protection. The people in the workplace recognize that our Code is outdated and not responsive to modern workplace needs. Unfortunately the government does not.

The government should have interpreted the poll results to mean that changing the Code in the ways outlined in the survey would be met with widespread support. Instead it took it as an excuse to do nothing.

The Employment Standards Code was constructed 20 years ago to address workplace issues of the time. It was never intended to be a piece of legislation cast in stone. Every other jurisdiction in Canada has amended its Code in significant ways in the past 10 to 15 years. Alberta stands alone in standing still.

Why has the government refused to act? We are not sure. Possibly a handful of special interest groups exerted their influence behind closed doors - yet again. But is this how policy should be determined? Especially standards that will affect hundreds of thousands of Albertans? Should shadowy lobbyists and Tory bagmen have more influence over policy than the voices of Albertans?

We expect most Albertans would answer no. The AFL certainly believes that working people deserve an Employment Standards Code that actually does its job of protecting workers.

We don't have that in Alberta, and we wonder how long Albertans will need to wait until the next chance to review employment standards.

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