Federally Regulated Employee | HTW Law - Employment Lawyer

Federally regulated employees are governed by the Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2 (the “CLC”), the federal equivalent of the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000. While it bears many similarities to its provincial legislative counterpart, the CLC is unique in that DIVISION XIV - Unjust Dismissal (s. 240 to s. 247) entitles unjustly dismissed employees whom are not managers with a tenure of 12 months or longer to receive reinstatement with back pay. In addition, s. 168 of the Canadian Labour Code clearly prohibits an employer to opt out DIVISION XIV - Unjust Dismissal of the CLC. CLC offers a federally regulated employee quasi-union protection, as confirmed in the Supreme Court case, Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which includes duty of employer to investigate complaints, entitled to progressive discipline, and duty to reinstate employees.

Under Canada Labour Code (CLC), the workers in the following sectors, are deemed to be federally regulated employees:

• Banking (ex. CIBC bank)

• Inter-provincial/international transportation (ex. trucking companies, railways)

• Airports, and Air transportation (ex. Air Canada)

• Television, Telephone, Radio and Cable systems (ex. Rogers/Bell)

• Fisheries

• Grain Elevators

• Uranium Mining and Processing

• First Nation Activities and Crown Corporations

The Employment law test for whether or not the matter is provincially regulated, or federally regulated is fact-specific and legally based. For instance, if a transportation company starts regularly running across provincial boundaries it will become federally regulated. In practice, all matters which are not federally regulated are, by default, provincially regulated.