Chris Rauenbusch says he doesn’t know if his employer can summon him to work on a day off after a series of sweeping federal labour reforms went into effect Sunday.
“I don’t know if I am entitled to take a break during a 14-hour shift,” said the 39-year-old flight attendant, who heads WestJet’s union local in Calgary.
His quandary follows a request by employers that Ottawa make some last-minute exemptions or delays to its new rules. The request has left hundreds of thousands of workers and their bosses in sectors from airlines to trucking to telecommunications unclear about whether they are fully covered by the Canada Labour Code overhaul.
As confusion mounted in the lead-up to the changes, Employment Minister Patty Hajdu said certain interim exemptions would apply — at least until further tweaks can be made after the October election — but acknowledged the government was still hammering out who they will ultimately include.
“I can’t actually speak to which employers and which 1/8employee3/8 classes will be subject to these limited exemptions because that is still being worked out with the department right now, and I’m looking forward to their advice,” Hajdu said days before the regulations started to kick in.
“I’m not certain exactly when I’ll have those recommendations.”
[…]
