February 29, 2008

Opinion

Give trades’ compulsory certification a lot more thought

While the media snoozed through the winter, preoccupied with snow storms and a new holiday that didn’t work out perfectly in its first run-through, public consultations have been going on that could conceivably lead to legislation that would require all construction tradespeople to be certified.

Roadbuilders’ Corner

Rob Bradford

While this debate about mandatory certification of trades is still largely a faceless beast, those involved understand the basic question is whether or not Ontario should require all trades to hold a mandatory certificate of qualification.

Former Deputy Minister of Labour Timothy Armstrong has been charged with conducting a public consultation and producing a report laying out the pros and cons of the issue. The report is not supposed to comment on whether compulsory certification might be a good idea or not, but that is going to be one masterful juggling act.

Proponents of the concept, mainly some construction unions and some larger union contractors, already inured with the existing apprentice trades, cite the need to ensure proper training and safety orientation as major reasons to move forward. Undoubtedly, construction tradespeople who have come through the apprenticeship system have benefited from the classroom training and education that goes along with it.

But it says here that what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander; it says compulsory certification of trades across the board is a bad idea, with the emphasis on ‘bad’.

From the perspective of the broader construction industry, compulsory certification would bring new costs to employers for training, labour relations, recruitment and retention, to name a few.

It could also conceivably lay waste to decades of decisions from the Ontario Labour Relations Board, which have tended to be case-specific about construction union jurisdiction issues, and in doing so have recognized a delicate but sustainable balance in the market. Compulsory certification would presumably involve some nature of describing the work being certified – and therefore the jurisdiction of – the various trades. If so, this could only intensify jurisdictional struggles across the industry.

One example in the road building sector would be the building and placing of concrete formwork for bridges. The traditional practice of unionized Ontario Road Builders’ Association members has been to employ labourers for this work, but would they be permitted to do the work if their trade certification did not include that work? Would contractors be required to enter into collective agreements with a new union which might also have claims to the jurisdiction?

Multiply that confusion by a big number and you begin to picture the potential upheaval in construction labour relations in Ontario.

It isn’t fair to presume exactly how a system of compulsory certification would look while public consultations about its efficacy are still under way, but it is reasonable to suggest that one cannot even go down the road of this discussion without anticipating considerable disruption to the union/non-union balance in the construction trades, the debates about jurisdictional rights and the as-yet-unfathomed impacts to the collective bargaining process.

Labour pool threatened

Looking at the subject from the road builders’ perspective for a moment, there is a more practical concern which should worry a provincial government that is committed to rebuilding Ontario’s infrastructure. Already faced with skilled trades shortages, road builders could see any future potential labour pools dry up overnight.

Road builders rely on operating engineers, labourers and, in some areas, teamsters to perform their contracts. That’s how it works in the industry and it has proven to be a good system for all concerned. In road building, young people enter the industry to perform labourers’ work (union and non-union). Sometimes they are sons and daughters of people already in the industry. Sometimes they are new Canadians. Sometimes they are people who didn’t find formal education compatible, yet still want to find rewarding careers. Employees who start as labourers then learn on the job to become supervisors, equipment operators, tradespeople with enhanced skills, etc.

Now switch back to compulsory certification again. If the worker that we recognize as the entry level labourer must now complete a multi-year apprenticeship with formal educational requirements, one of two things is going to happen. Workers who are prepared to enter the industry will realize that if they have to go through the system anyway, why not choose a more attractive trade? Workers not prepared to participate in a formal training and education system, and never were, will go to other industries.

Who will choose to be a labourer in construction, regardless of the very positive career paths that may entail, if the barriers to entry are the same as for more desirable trades? Will what we understand today to be a labourer even exist in a world of compulsory trade certification?

Entry level at risk

Road builder concerns about compulsory certification of trades is neither an indictment of trade certification for appropriate trades, nor any hint of suggestion that the apprenticeship system is not a valuable one – again, where appropriate.

However, logic dictates that if all trades have the same rules of entry and the same standards for completion, then the labour pool is going to be decimated at the entry level.

That speaks to where the majority of the 25,000 road building tradespeople have traditionally found their way into the industry.

Is it all or nothing, or can the public discussion stand back and recognize that across-the-board certification of trades can bring with it instability to the broader labour relations issues and specific concern for contractors that have traditionally built, trained and developed their workforces around the labouring trade – the backbone of the construction industry?

ORBA members have expressed their concern about this issue in unprecedented numbers. They have been active at each of the public consultations held across Ontario. Their message has been consistent. Road building contractors and their workforce have a system that works. Union or non-union, workers are paid and trained well and offered opportunity to advance.

But compulsory certification of all trades, in particular the labourer trade, would create problems for labour recruitment and retention, for labour relations issues in the unionized sector and in the increased cost to Ontario taxpayers who are trying desperately to catch up to tens of billions of dollars in core infrastructure deficits.

Rob Bradford is executive director of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association.

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