We spoke out on this issue in the media from the time Bill 124 was passed. Our media releases were picked up by many major media outlets and shared on social media.
Our leaders never stopped lobbying the government, participating in multiple meetings and consultations, and expressing our members’ deep concerns with Bill 124.
In the 2022 provincial election, members across Ontario made Bill 124 an election issue and made three out of four major parties commit to repealing the bill if elected.
ONA and other labour unions launched a Charter challenge against Bill 124 in 2019. ONA submitted extensive evidence to support our arguments for why Bill 124 violates the Charter, including from our front-line members.
The hearing for ONA and other unions’ Bill 124 constitutional challenge ran every day for two weeks, from Sept. 12-23, 2022. We presented our evidence on September 13 and 14. ONA’s legal team was Kate Hughes, Danielle Bisnar, and Janet Borowy of Cavalluzzo LLP.
Over the span of two days, ONA presented facts, affidavits, caselaw and supporting documentation – thousands of pages – in open court to Justice Koehnen of the Ontario Superior Court. The Justice had to then rule whether Bill 124 contravenes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, also known as the Charter.
We argued Bill 124 was unconstitutional on two main grounds:
We argued that our members simply want to be treated equally, for the collective bargaining process to be respected, and for the government to stop interfering with the collective bargaining rights of our members. Read ONA’s Factum for more information on our legal arguments.
ONA welcomed the Ontario Superior Court’s decision, on November 29, 2022, that ruled Bill 124 is unconstitutional and a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In his decision, Justice Koehnen wrote, “I declare the Act… to be void and of no effect.”
This decision is a hard-fought win for ONA and public sector workers across the province. It is a vindication of the rights of nurses, health-care professionals and all workers. ONA’s position from the start was that this bill interfered with the Charter rights of public sector workers to freely negotiate a collective agreement.
That’s why we launched our court challenge against this legislation and why we have fought tirelessly for it to be repealed. This victory belongs to ONA members and other public sector workers who have advocated for years to defeat this legislation and bring its devastating impacts to light.
We will not back down until ONA members achieve justice. We demanded the Ford government accept the court’s ruling and stop wasting taxpayer dollars fighting workers in court. Nurses and public sector workers waited long enough for fairness.
ONA Interim Provincial President/Region 2 Vice-President Bernie Robinson participated in an OFL press conference on Bill 124’s landmark court decision at Queen’s Park on November 30, 2022. Representatives from CUPE Ontario, SEIU Healthcare, OSSTF, ETFO and the CLC were also in attendance.
The Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed that Bill 124 violated unionized workers’ right to collective bargaining. It dismissed the Ford government’s appeal of the Superior Court’s decision to strike down Bill 124 as unconstitutional in relation to unionized workers.
After the court’s decision was released, the government confirmed that they would repeal Bill 124 – a huge win for ONA members and public sector workers across Ontario.
ONA President Erin Ariss, RN, joined the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), CUPE Ontario, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the Ontario NDP, at a media conference reacting to news that Ford has lost his Bill 124 appeal.
ONA was successful in striking down Bill 124 in court and had the foresight to achieve reopener clauses to seek retroactive wages. However, the arbitration decisions for hospital and charitable homes members were not nearly enough to retain and recruit nurses and health professionals to a system already suffering from severe shortages.
The hospital sector decision by Arbitrator Gedalof included an additional 2.0 per cent, effective as of April 1, 2022, and a compressed wage grid for nurses with between eight- and 25-years of experience.
This was on top of the previous decision by Arbitrator Stout that allocated additional wage increases of 0.75 per cent and 1.0 per cent, effective April 1 of 2020 and 2021, respectively. Hospital members also received unlimited mental health coverage in this decision.
ONA members working in the charitable nursing homes sector received an additional 0.75 per cent in each of three years, effective July 1 of 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Amidst the highest inflation rates in a generation, these arbitration decisions did not reflect the value of members’ work and did nothing to address existing gender inequity.
On Thursday, May 4 at 5 p.m. (EST), ONA hosted a Zoom virtual town hall to review the decisions, answer your questions, provide additional information and outline next steps.
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