Permissive provisions
47.  (1) Despite anything in this Act, but subject to subsection (4), the parties to a collective agreement may include in it provisions, (a) for requiring, as a condition of employment, membership in the trade union that is a party to or is bound by the agreement or granting a preference of employment to members of the trade union, or requiring the payment of dues or contributions to the trade union; (b) for permitting an employee who represents the trade union that is a party to or is bound by the agreement to attend to the business of the trade union during working hours without deduction of the time so occupied in the computation of the time worked for the employer and without deduction of wages in respect of the time so occupied; (c) for permitting the trade union that is a party to or is bound by the agreement to the use of the employer’s premises for the purposes of the trade union without payment therefor. Where non-member employee cannot be required to be discharged (2) No trade union that is a party to a collective agreement containing a provision mentioned in clause (1)(a) shall require the employer to discharge an employee because, (a) the employee has been expelled or suspended from membership in the trade union; or (b) membership in the trade union has been denied to or withheld from the employee, for the reason that the employee, (c) was or is a member of another trade union; (d) has engaged in activity against the trade union or on behalf of another trade union; (e) has engaged in reasonable dissent within the trade union; (f) has been discriminated against by the trade union in the application of its membership rules; or (g) has refused to pay initiation fees, dues or other assessments to the trade union which are unreasonable. Where subs. (2) does not apply (3) Subsection (2) does not apply to an employee who has engaged in unlawful activity against the trade union mentioned in clause (1)(a) or an officer, official or agent thereof or whose activity against the trade union or on behalf of another trade union has been instigated or procured by the employee’s employer or any person acting on the employer’s behalf or whose employer or a person acting on the employer’s behalf has participated in such activity or contributed financial or other support to the employee in respect of the activity. Union security provision in first agreement (4) A trade union and the employer of the employees concerned shall not enter into a collective agreement that includes provisions requiring, as a condition of employment, membership in the trade union that is a party to or is bound by the agreement unless the trade union has established at the time it entered into the agreement that not less than 55 per cent of the employees in the bargaining unit were members of the trade union, but this subsection does not apply, (a) where the trade union has been certified as the bargaining agent of the employees of the employer in the bargaining unit; (b) where the trade union has been a party to or bound by a collective agreement with the employer for at least one year; (c) where the employer becomes a member of an employer’s organization that has entered into a collective agreement with the trade union or council of trade unions containing such a provision and agrees with the trade union or council of trade unions to be bound by such agreement; or (d) where the employer and the employer’s employees in the bargaining unit are engaged in the construction, alteration, decoration, repair or demolition of a building, structure, road, sewer, water or gas main, pipe line, tunnel, bridge, canal, or other work at the site. Continuation of permissive provisions (5) Despite anything in this Act, where the parties to a collective agreement have included in it any of the provisions permitted by subsection (1), any of such provisions may be continued in effect during the period when the parties are bargaining with a view to the renewal, with or without modifications, of the agreement or to the making of a new agreement. Idem (6) Despite anything in this Act, where the parties to a collective agreement have included in it any of the provisions permitted by subsection (1) and the employer who was a party to or was bound by the agreement sells the employer’s business within the meaning of section 64, any of the provisions that were included in the collective agreement may be continued in effect during the period when the person to whom the business was sold and the trade union that is the bargaining agent for the person’s employees in the appropriate bargaining unit by reason of the sale bargain with a view to the making of a new agreement. R.S.O. 1990, c.L.2, s.47.