Your workplace rights, in plain language
Short articles to decode your collective agreement, your rights, and the traps to avoid. Sourced and written without jargon.
Recall Rights After a Layoff: How Long Must Your Employer Wait Before Replacing You?
Laid off temporarily? Your collective agreement likely includes a recall period — and if your employer ignores it, you have real recourse. Here's how to decode your rights before it's too late.
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Family Responsibility Leave: What the Labour Standards Act Guarantees and What Your Collective Agreement Can Add
Quebec's labour standards set a floor for family responsibility leave — but your collective agreement can go much further. Learn what the law guarantees and what your union contract might add on top.
Right to Refuse Dangerous Work: What Your Collective Agreement Adds to the Labour Code
The right to refuse dangerous work is protected by law — but your collective agreement may go even further. Here's how to exercise that right, step by step, without putting your job at risk.
Temporary Reassignment and Duty Changes: Can Your Employer Move You Without Your Consent?
Your employer asks you to cover a colleague's role, switch departments, or take on tasks outside your job. Is that legal? Here's when reassignment is allowed — and how to push back when it crosses the line.
Disciplinary Records and Warning Letters: How Long Can Your Employer Use Them Against You?
Can a warning letter from three years ago still be used against you today? Not necessarily. The principle of disciplinary amnesty — well established in Quebec arbitration — puts a time limit on how long past discipline can follow you.
Shift and Evening Premiums: What Your Collective Agreement Must Cover (and What the Labour Standards Act Does Not Guarantee)
The Labour Standards Act guarantees no mandatory premium for evening, night, or weekend work. Everything depends on your collective agreement — here's how to read it and assert your rights.
Remote Work and Your Collective Agreement: Which Rights Apply When You Work From Home?
Does your collective agreement follow you home when you work remotely? From equipment and expense reimbursement to working hours and the right to disconnect, here is what the law guarantees and what your union can negotiate on top of it.
Sick Leave and Short-Term Disability: What Your Collective Agreement Actually Covers
Two paid days and up to 26 unpaid ones: that's the floor set by Quebec's labour standards law, not the ceiling. Your collective agreement may provide far more — a leave bank, full salary continuance, or a waiting period. Here's how sick leave really works in a unionized workplace.
Statutory Holiday Pay: Are You Entitled to Your Day Off Even If You Don't Work That Day?
A statutory holiday that falls on a Sunday, a worker on sick leave, a part-timer with no scheduled hours that day — who actually gets paid? We break down the rules under Quebec's Act Respecting Labour Standards and how your collective agreement can improve on them.
Two-Tier Wage Clauses: Can Your Employer Legally Pay You Less Than a Colleague for the Same Work?
Two-tier wage clauses — sometimes called "orphan clauses" — can allow employers to pay newer workers less than veterans for the same job. But Quebec law has tightly restricted this practice since 1999. Here's what you need to know to protect your rights.
Union Grievances: How the Step-by-Step Procedure Actually Works
Think your employer violated your collective agreement but don't know what to do next? Here's exactly how the grievance procedure works — deadlines, steps, arbitration — so you never lose your rights by default.
Subcontracting and Contract Work: When Does Your Collective Agreement Protect You?
Subcontracting can hollow out unionized jobs without a single formal dismissal notice. Learn what your collective agreement — and the law — can do to protect you.
Seniority and layoffs: in what order must your employer lay off workers?
When layoffs hit, the order in which workers are let go is rarely left to chance — your collective agreement governs it. Learn how seniority clauses protect unionized workers, what "bumping" means, and when an employer can set seniority aside.
Unilateral schedule changes: can your employer change your hours without your consent?
Your employer just handed you a new schedule — without asking. Is that even legal? Here's what your collective agreement, labour standards, and management rights rules actually say.
Called back to work and forced overtime: are you legally required to accept?
Many unionized workers believe they must always accept a callback or forced overtime. That's not automatic — your collective agreement and the law set important limits on your employer's power to compel extra hours.
Seniority and Job Postings: How Does Internal Hiring Priority Work?
Seniority is the backbone of most collective agreements, yet many workers don't fully understand how it applies when an internal job posting goes up. Here's what you need to know to protect your rights.
Understanding your collective agreement: a practical guide
A collective agreement isn't a legal manual reserved for stewards. It's your collective employment contract — and knowing how to read it means more power in your day-to-day. Here's how to decode yours in 30 minutes.
Overtime: what your collective agreement says vs. the Labour Standards Act
Past 40 hours per week, Quebec's Labour Standards Act says "paid at 150 %". But your collective agreement may go further — or differently. Here's how to know what really applies to you.
Probation and trial period: your real rights
You've been told that during probation, the employer can dismiss you "without a reason." That's almost true — but not quite. Here's what protection you keep, and what your agreement can add.
Vacation and annual leave: what your agreement can add to the Labour Standards Act
The law guarantees 2 paid weeks after one year, 3 after five. Your agreement may provide considerably more — and the difference is counted in weeks, not in days. Here's how to read your entitlements.
Disciplinary measures: warning, suspension, dismissal — your rights
A disciplinary notice, a suspension, a dismissal: three measures governed by specific rules. Here's the steps to defend your rights without panicking, one stage at a time.
Calculating your seniority: why every agreement does it differently
Seniority decides your turn for vacation, your priority on postings, your protection in case of layoff. And yet, two agreements can calculate the same "10 years" very differently. Here's how to read yours.
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