Evaluation Summary: Labour Standards

The program's goal is to establish and enforce the labour standards protections under Part III of the Canada Labour Code and the Canada Labour Standards Regulations, as well as to ensure fair and equitable conditions of employment in federally regulated workplaces.

Key findings and recommendations

Modernization of Federal Labour Standards

The program has made some contributions to modernizing the Code through various program activities, such as stakeholder consultations and various updates to the Code. However, there is still room for improvement to modernize federal labour standards to address emerging challenges in employment practices.

Recommendation: Modernize and update federal labour standards to address emerging challenges in employment practices and the changing realities of the workplace.

Reactive Activities

Enforcement measures have not been entirely effective and a backlog of complaints, between 2011 and 2016, has been affecting the timeliness of services to clients.

Recommendation: Explore ways to address complaints efficiently, in order to reduce the backlog of complaints and improve service delivery times, and explore opportunities to implement and apply stronger enforcement measures to address and deter violations to the Code.

Proactive Activities

The program conducts minimal proactive work, particularly in high-risk sectors.

Recommendation: Use program data effectively to assess violations to the Code and their severity and to increase targeted proactive activities, particularly in high-risk sectors.