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Bill C-485

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C-485
Second Session, Fortieth Parliament,
57-58 Elizabeth II, 2009
HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA
BILL C-485
An Act to amend the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act (members’ staff)
first reading, November 26, 2009
Ms. Charlton

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SUMMARY
This enactment amends the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act (“the Act”) to ensure that staff of members of the Senate and the House of Commons, who serve them in their capacity as Member of Parliament, Leader, House Leader or Whip, will not be prevented from being included in a bargaining unit. The enactment covers caucus staff, parliamentary committee staff, and staff in a minister’s office who are hired under the Act, but not staff in a minister’s office who are hired under the Public Service Employment Act.
To achieve its objectives, the enactment
(a) amends the Act to ensure that Part I of the Act does not apply to staff who are hired under the Public Service Employment Act;
(b) adds members of both Houses to the definition of “employer”; and
(c) excludes persons employed under the Public Service Employment Act from the definition “employee”, so that the staff in a minister’s office who were hired under that Act are not within that definition.
The enactment also prohibits lockouts by employers of their employees and imposes fines on those causing lockouts. This makes the Act consistent in its provisions respecting strikes and lockouts.
The commencement provision of the Act is amended to ensure that all of the provisions of the Act that have not previously been brought into force will come into force not later than the day on which this enactment comes into force.

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2nd Session, 40th Parliament,
57-58 Elizabeth II, 2009
house of commons of canada
BILL C-485
An Act to amend the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act (members’ staff)
R.S., c. 33 (2nd Supp.)
Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:
1. (1) The definition “employee” in section 3 of the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act is amended by striking out “or” at the end of paragraph (d), by adding “or” at the end of paragraph (e) and by adding the following after paragraph (e):
(f) a person who is an employee as defined in subsection 2(1) of the Public Service Labour Relations Act.
(2) The definition “employer” in section 3 of the Act is amended by striking out “or” at the end of paragraph (d), by adding “or” at the end of paragraph (e) and by adding the following after paragraph (e):
(f) a member of the Senate or House of Commons who employs staff pursuant to this Act
(i) to perform work for the member in his or her capacity as a Member of Parliament, including work in the member’s constituency,
(ii) to perform work for the member who holds the office of a minister of the Crown in relation to the minister’s role as a Member of Parliament, including work in the minister’s constituency,
(iii) to perform work for the member who is a Leader, House Leader or Whip of a political party represented in Parliament, in relation to the functions of that position in Parliament, or
(iv) to perform work for the caucus of a party.
(3) Section 3 of the Act is amended by adding the following in alphabetical order:
“lockout”
« lock-out »
“lockout” includes the closing of a place of employment, a suspension of work by an employer or a refusal by an employer to continue to employ a number of their employees, done to compel their employees, or to aid another employer to compel that other employer’s employees, to agree to terms or conditions of employment;
2. Paragraph 4(2)(a) of the Act is replaced by the following:
(a) the staff of a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada holding the office of a minister of the Crown who are employed to serve the minister in relation to that office;
3. The Act is amended by adding the following after section 77:
Lockouts
No lockout
77.1 No employer shall cause a lockout of the employer's employees.
Offences and punishment
77.2 Every employer who contravenes section 77.1 is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction, for each day that a lockout caused by the employer in contravention of that section subsists, to a fine not exceeding
(a) five hundred dollars in the case of an employer who is an individual; or
(b) five thousand dollars in the case of an employer other than an individual.
4. Section 89 of the Act is replaced by the following:
Coming into force
89. Parts I, II and III of this Act or any of those Parts come into force on the earlier of
(a) a day or days to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council, and
(b) the day on which An Act to amend the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act (members’ staff) receives royal assent.
Published under authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons
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