Bill C-284: An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (replacement workers)

This affects federally regulated employers — such as banks, airlines, railways, telecommunications companies, and interprovincial trucking firms — operating anywhere in Canada. If you run one of these businesses and have multiple locations, you can no longer bring in managers or HR/labour relations staff from your other sites to keep operations running during a strike or lockout at an affected workplace. This matters most to mid-sized and larger employers who have traditionally relied on head office management or regional supervisors to cover essential duties when bargaining unit workers walk out. Smaller single-site operations are less directly affected, but any business with a management team that handles labour relations across sites will need to rethink its contingency planning.