Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court has declared Bill 148, the Public Services Sustainability (2015) Act, unconstitutional, finding it violated workers’ collective bargaining rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to Canada’s largest private sector union.
The ruling affects more than 3,500 Unifor members in the public sector, along with workers across health care, long-term care, and community services who were subject to the legislation for more than a decade.
What the law did
Bill 148 was imposed in 2015 under former Liberal premier Stephen McNeil’s government. It restricted collective bargaining in three key ways:
- Wage freeze: It imposed a non-negotiated wage pattern across the entire public sector — 0%, 0%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and an additional 0.5% on the final day of the agreement
- Benefits cut: It removed long-standing negotiated retirement allowances and public service awards effective April 1, 2015
- Arbitration cap: It prohibited arbitrators from awarding wage increases above the imposed pattern
Union response
Unifor is calling on Premier Tim Houston’s government to accept the ruling and not appeal the decision.
“We will always fight for the trade union rights of Canadian workers,” said Lana Payne, Unifor national president. “For more than a decade, our members have lived with legislation that stripped away their collective bargaining rights. Bill 148 was anti-worker legislation, plain and simple. The court has now affirmed what we have said from the beginning — Bill 148 undermined free and fair collective bargaining and violated workers’ constitutional rights.”
Jennifer Murray, Unifor Atlantic regional director, said the ruling recognizes the burden workers carried under the law. “Governments have a duty to consult and negotiate in good faith. Our members in health care, long-term care, community services and beyond carried the burden of this unconstitutional law. Today’s decision recognizes the hardship they endured and the importance of protecting their rights moving forward.”
What comes next
Unifor is urging the Houston government not to replicate the legislation in any form.
“Bill 148 affected real workers, their families, and their retirements,” said Susan Gill, Unifor national representative. “We are hopeful this government will not attempt to reintroduce or replicate legislation that so clearly violates the Charter.”
The union says workers lost wages and benefits they were entitled to under freely negotiated collective agreements during the years the law was in force.
Unifor represents 320,000 workers across Canada and describes itself as the country’s largest private sector union.
