NDP leader Avi Lewis says the federal government is contravening Canada’s replacement-worker rules after the Bank of Canada acknowledged using replacement workers during a security officers’ strike.
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NDP Leader Avi Lewis says the federal government is breaking the labour laws it helped pass after the governor of the Bank of Canada admitted to using replacement workers during a strike involving the central bank’s security officers.
The NDP leader made the allegation at a rally outside the Bank of Canada on Sept. 23, framing the walkout as the first major test of new federal restrictions on replacement workers in federally regulated workplaces. Lewis said the government and the Bank of Canada have signalled they are prepared to “defy the law of this country,” according to the report.
Canada passed legislation in 2024 to bar federally regulated workplaces from bringing in replacement workers during a legal strike, and the rules took effect last year. The dispute is now entering its final stretch toward 100 days, with security officers having gone on strike in June after negotiations failed to produce a new collective agreement between the central bank and the union.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board has released two decisions, indicating the central bank contravened the Canada Labour Code by using contractors and by drawing on the services of union members during the strike. In a July comment reported in the coverage, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said some exceptions to the replacement-worker rules can apply when necessary to prevent threats to life, health or safety, or to prevent serious damage to property.
The conflict highlights how the federal government’s replacement-worker framework is being applied in a critical public institution. For workers and employers, the case is also an indicator of how broadly the law’s safety and property-protection exceptions may be interpreted as strikes continue.
While Lewis’s remarks underscore the NDP’s view that Ottawa and the Bank are violating the statute, the underlying legal questions rest with the Canada Industrial Relations Board decisions and the scope of the replacement-worker exceptions cited by Macklem.
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