The inmates who work inside federal prison cafeterias, kitchens and laundry rooms want the right to unionize like other public servants.
The inmates who work inside federal prisons want the right to unionize like other public servants.
The Canadian Prisoners’ Labour ConFederation (CPLC) and its president, Jeff Ewert, say the federal correctional service has unfairly denied inmates the right to unionize and bargain collectively.
Ewert wants inmates who work inside prison cafeterias, kitchens and laundry rooms treated like other public servants employed by the federal government.
Denying them the right to unionize, he contends, offends their constitutional right to freedom of association.
Ewert has asked the federal labour relations board to find that the exclusion of inmates from labour law — specifically the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act — violates the Charter.
The act governs labour relations between the federal government and its employees.
The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board recently ruled it would hear the constitutional challenge brought by the prisoners.
Board adjudicator Christopher Rootham found that inmates were not federal “employees” as defined by the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act, but he rejected the government’s contention that the finding barred the board from hearing the inmates’ constitutional challenge.
“In summary,” Rootham concluded, “inmates are not ‘employees’ as that term is defined in the Act. However, the board has the jurisdiction to rule on whether that definition is unconstitutionally under-inclusive for the purposes of this complaint.”
Evening Update
The decision means the board will hear arguments as to whether the exclusion of inmates from federal labour law violates their constitutional rights under the Charter.
Canada’s federal penitentiaries hold about 12,600 inmates. Many of them are employed in prison as cooks, cleaners and clerks, while others work in prison industry programs that produce furniture, clothes and other products.
Federal prison industries are operated by CORCAN, a special agency within the Correctional Service of Canada.
In June 2021, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Human Rights published a report on the human rights of federally-sentenced inmates. It said inmates earned a maximum of $6.90 per day, but had 30 per cent of their incomes deducted to pay for room and board.
The Senate committee recommended the correctional service boost the salaries of inmate workers and reduce the cost of their room, board and telephone service.
The recent labour relations board ruling represents an important procedural victory for advocates of prisoners’ labour rights. The constitutional case will now move to a full hearing, and, if successful, it could fundamentally change labour relations in Canadian penitentiaries.
Previous court decisions have said that to be considered a federal government employee, an individual must be formally appointed to the public service. Since inmates are not appointed under terms of the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act, courts have said they fall outside the law’s reach.
The inmates’ constitutional challenge seeks to upend that interpretation. They argue that inmates’ exclusion from federal labour law is similar to the treatment once experienced by Ontario’s agricultural workers, who were not allowed to unionize.
In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the province could not exclude agricultural workers from its labour laws.
Brock University labour studies professor Jordan House said that while a union for prisoners may seem far-fetched, it is not unknown. In 1977, he said, prisoners working in a meat packing plant at the Guelph Correctional Centre successfully unionized and earned the rights, health and safety protections afforded other workers.
The union remained in place for two decades until the privately-run abattoir was moved from prison grounds.
House said about two-thirds of federal inmates work inside prison as part of their correctional plans. He believes they deserve the right to unionize.
“I come from the perspective that every worker who wants a union should have that opportunity,” he said. “If you look a the kind of work federal prisoners are doing, it’s entirely reasonable that they would want to purse unionization.”
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