(Montreal) NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice wants to have the Canada Labor Code amended to ensure that wages and working conditions are maintained when there is a change of subcontractor at airports.
He tabled a private member’s bill to that effect on Thursday.
At present, when a contractor at an airport loses its contract to supply meals or fuel, for example, its workers lose their jobs. They must then apply to the new subcontractor who obtained the contract, to carry out the same tasks, in the same place, but with less advantageous conditions.
They can sometimes lose $ 5 an hour and several benefits that were provided for in their collective agreement, explained a worker employed by a subcontractor, alongside MP Boulerice, during a press conference.
This system is called contract flipping. And according to MP Boulerice, the phenomenon is specific to airports.
The bill tabled by MP Boulerice aims to “plug this breach” which forces workers to start from scratch each time their contract is lost by the subcontractor who employed them.