LAWYERS AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE CANADIAN PUBLIC SECTOR

KENNETH WM. THORNICROFT

---

DOI: 10.2190/JC0P-0538-0026-R49X

Abstract

Collective bargaining within the legal profession is a relatively new phenomenon, both in Canada and the United States. There is nothing particularly surprising in this, given that public sector bargaining itself only began to take hold in the late 1960s. It has been suggested that lawyers and other "traditional" professionals, such as doctors, accountants, and engineers, are less amenable to the entreaties of union organizers than are other occupational groups. Attitudes among salaried lawyers in the public sector are changing, however, as their customary earnings parity vis-a-vis their private sector colleagues erodes. Another catalytic factor may be the increasing "deprofessionalization" experienced by lawyers employed in the public sector. In Canada, undoubtedly, legislative barriers have slowed the diffusion of collective bargaining by lawyers in the public sector although, as the Ontario experience shows, the absence of enabling legislation may not always prove to be an insurmountable obstacle.

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.