View cases - Stewart McKelvey

1. The right to form or join an employees’ association.2. The right to participate in the lawful activities of an employees’ association.3. The right to assemble.4. The right to make representations to their employers, through an employees’association, respecting the terms and conditions of their employment.5. The right to protection against interference, coercion and discrimination inthe exercise of their rights.2011 SCC 20 (CanLII)[286] Nothing in the explicit s. 1 purpose supports the view that agricultural employeeshave a right to require agricultural employers to engage in collective bargaining.[287] My colleagues ask what purpose there could be to requiring employers to listen to orread employee representations if not to respond to them. The answer is that the purpose is whatthe words say it is — to give employees the opportunity to more effectively put forward theirrepresentations by allowing them to do so collectively, rather than acting individually. Given theunique nature of the agricultural industry as recognized in s. 1, an employer is at liberty torespond or not. With respect, my colleagues interpretation of the words, “listen to” or “read” or“give the association a written acknowledgment” as including a duty on employers to engage incollective bargaining does not accord with the purpose as expressed by the plain language of theAEPA.[288] Finally, the Chief Justice and LeBel J. say that when the government of Ontariointroduced the AEPA it intended the legislation to provide protection for collective bargaining.