Official under fire over ‘draconian’ bill to fine workers $4000 each day they strike

The premier of Canada’s Ontario province, Doug Ford, has come under fire over a “draconian” bill to fine school support staff C$4,000 a day for going on strike.

Mr Ford had on October 31 introduced Bill 28, Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022. If passed, it would prohibit Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) workers from its planned strike.

The bill will also impose a new collective agreement on CUPE, which consists of approximately 55,000 Ontario education workers, including educational assistants, custodians, librarians, and early childhood educators.

The legislation will prevent and prohibit a strike or lockout during the term of the contract, invoking the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to accomplish this goal.

The bill has since ignited controversy with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticising the Ontario government’s attempt to “suspend people’s rights and freedoms”.

CUPE had called for an 11.3 per cent raise for its workers – often the lowest paid in schools – arguing that stagnant wage growth and high inflation have hit the lowest earners hardest.

The government has countered with a 2.5 per cent annual raise for the lowest income workers and 1.5 percent raises for others.

With the ongoing negotiations and a planned strike, the government fast-tracked Bill 28. If passed, the draconian legislation will fine Individuals who fail to comply up to $4,000 a day and the union C$500,000 for striking.

It reportedly makes the first time in the county’s history that the right of workers to collectively bargain and to strike could be legally stripped away.

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Although the government agrees that the bill breaches the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedom and the Human Rights Code, it says its priority is averting a strike.

News of the bill has made some in Nigeria to draw parallels with the federal government’s handing of the recently ended eight-month strike by university lecturers.

The government has insisted it would not pay the workers for the period the strike lasted.

ASUU embarked on strike on February 14 to demand that the government honour the agreements it had with the union. The industrial action continued until the union suspended it on October 14.