The Board has so ruled in several cases. There is consensus between labour and management that the right to return to work should receive explicit statutory protection. The Code should contain some wording confirming the right of striking employees to resume their employment following the completion of the work stoppage. Striking employees should be given an expressed statutory right to return to work at the conclusion of a lawful strike or lockout in preference to any persons hired during that strike or lockout. In implementing this recommendation, it must be recognized that a dispute may not end in an agreement.
Strikes can fail.
The right is the right to return to work in preference to any replacement worker hired during the work stoppage, not a right to any particular collective agreement or even any agreement at all. There are several provincial models for such return to work arrangements and we make no recommendation as to which model works best. The model needs to make allowance for a reasonable period of notification, the problems of the start-up or lack of work, and similar transitional issues. In the most situations, this issue will be adequately dealt with by a back to work protocol negotiated between the parties. Labour and management should consult further on this point.