The bipartisan committee that was supposed to settle the dispute over the use of mobile apps on workers’ personal phones in the construction industry failed to reach an agreement and produce its report as planned.
Posted at 2:28 p.m.
The case has therefore been referred to arbitration and it should be heard by the end of the year, the Association de la construction du Québec – an employer party in the industry – and a union party confirmed on Tuesday.
This question of the use of mobile applications on workers’ personal mobile phones had been one of the main issues in the negotiation of collective agreements in the construction industry in 2021. Such applications make it possible to record working hours and overtime worked by a worker, on his own mobile phone.
Employers were particularly keen on this use of mobile applications, which allow them to save time, personnel and paper forms.
The unions, for their part, feared for the protection of the personal information of their members, since the employers thus had access to the personal cell phones of their employees.
After months of negotiations, the strike was narrowly averted and the parties reached tentative agreements at the end of May 2021. The collective agreements cover some 185,000 workers.
However, since the parties still did not agree on the parameters governing the use of these mobile applications on the personal telephone of the workers, they had agreed to refer the dispute to a joint committee.
This committee met in 2021 and was to produce its report by March 31, 2022. However, the parties failed to reach an agreement and therefore did not produce a report.
The file was finally sent to an arbitrator, who will have to look into the file by the end of the year.