The various options that ACPA may be considering, versus the various options that may be legally and practically available to ACPA in response to the impending legislative and judicially-imposed changes are likely to be quite different, notwithstanding what some members believe.
First, ACPA cannot make unilateral changes. All contractual changes must be negotiated with the employer, then approved by the membership. Those are two big hurdles, in and of themselves.
Second, there are legislative restrictions on the options available that will apply to both the union and the employer. The employer would likely be very reluctant to enter into any arrangement that would appear to substitute one form of prohibited discrimination for another, no matter how it is disguised.
Despite what some may believe, the entire purpose of the Canadian Human Rights Act is to prevent discrimination on any of the enumerated grounds, such as age discrimination. The Act has various sanctions and remedies for violations.
One would hope, especially following the release of the pending decisions and following the announcement today by the government of the intention to banish age discrimination from the workplace, that the parties might have had enough of litigation aimed at either denying reality or at delaying the inevitable.
Last edited by Raymond767; 12th July 2010 at 23:13.