LAW 529 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: North West Company, Combination Act 1799, Collective Bargaining
30 Dec 2019
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The common law has not been favourable to workers organizing to advance their conditions of employment. Efforts by workers to organize can be detected as early as the middle ages. Efforts to organize labour in canada were detected in the latter part of the 18th century. Employees of the north west company (fur traders) went on strike for higher wages in 1794. There were three distinct eras in the development of canadian labour law: First era: repression of workers" organizations and collective bargaining; Second era: tolerance of workers" organizations and collective bargaining; Eighteenth and 19th century common law deemed labour organizations to be illegal under the doctrine of criminal conspiracy (conspiracy to restrict trade); England"s combination act 1799 outlawed two or more workers combining to increase their wages, lessen their hours of work, or persuade anyone to leave or refuse to work; The revised combination act 1825 made it legal for workers to bargain collectively, but illegal to strike.
