View cases - Stewart McKelvey

as described in Health Services, it imposes a duty on employers to meet with employees andmake a “reasonable effort to arrive at an acceptable contract” (para. 101). No individualemployee has a right to require an employer to meet and make a reasonable effort to arrive at anacceptable employment contract, which is the right for an employee association created byHealth Services.[198] The Chief Justice and LeBel J. say that collective bargaining is a derivative right2011 SCC 20 (CanLII)because it is a “necessary precondition” to make their choice to associate meaningful.Understood this way, compulsory collective bargaining does not enable association. Rather it isentirely concerned with enhancing the ability of employee associations, once formed, to pursuetheir goals and provide them with a more favourable bargaining position.[199] There is no reason to think that individual employees would not have the exact samedesire for a more favourable bargaining position. Every day in Canada there are individuals whoenter into employment contracts with their employers. Those individuals might also benefit iftheir employers were compelled to negotiate their employment contracts with them. However,individuals do not have a constitutionally mandated right to compel their employers to negotiateover an employment contract with them simply because no such right exists in the Charter.Because no individual has the right to compel an employer to negotiate in good faith over anemployment contract, collective bargaining is not emergent from an activity that an individualalone could do.