Business continuity during a labour dispute has always required careful contingency planning. For federally regulated Canadian employers, that planning changed significantly when new replacement worker restrictions came into force in June 2025.
The change does not eliminate an employer’s ability to prepare for operational continuity during a labour dispute. It does mean that a traditional plan built around finding additional personnel after a work stoppage begins may no longer be viable.
Effective labour disruption planning now needs to answer a broader set of questions. Employers need to determine which operations are genuinely critical, who can lawfully perform the work, how managers and authorized personnel will access the workplace, who will manage the organization’s response, and who will document incidents at picket lines.
These are operational questions, not simply labour relations questions.
The potential impact of labour disruption can be substantial. Statistics Canada reported that labour disputes resulted in 6.6 million person days of lost work in 2023. This was the highest level since 1986. Education, health and social services, and public administration accounted for much of the increase.
Replacement Worker Restrictions Have Changed Labour Dispute Planning
Bill C 58 received Royal Assent on June 20, 2024, and its new replacement worker provisions took effect one year later on June 20, 2025.
The legislation applies to workplaces governed by Part I of the Canada Labour Code. It is therefore important not to interpret the federal rules as a uniform replacement worker ban across Canada. Employers that fall under provincial jurisdiction need to consider the legislation that applies in their province.
For federally regulated workplaces, the amended Code restricts employers from using several categories of people to perform bargaining unit work during a legal strike or lockout. These restrictions include certain employees and managers hired after notice to bargain, contractors performing bargaining unit work, volunteers, students, members of the public, and certain employees transferred from other workplaces.
The legislation also contains limited exceptions. Employers may use replacement workers in certain circumstances involving threats to life, public health or safety, serious damage to property, or serious environmental damage. The Code also requires employers to offer bargaining unit employees the opportunity to perform necessary work before relying on replacement workers under these exceptions.
Because these rules can have significant legal consequences, employers preparing for a Canadian labour dispute should obtain labour law advice that is specific to their organization and jurisdiction.
A Strike Command Centre Supports Labour Dispute Response
A strong labour dispute contingency plan should begin by identifying what actually needs to continue.
Some operations may need to continue for safety, regulatory compliance, environmental protection, asset preservation, customer obligations, or basic facility integrity. Employers may reduce or temporarily suspend other activities.
Before a Canadian work stoppage occurs, management should understand which functions are critical, who can lawfully perform them, which assets require continuous monitoring, which suppliers require access, what materials must continue moving, and who has authority to change the plan as conditions develop.
For federally regulated employers, this analysis can also intersect with the maintenance of activities process under the Canada Labour Code.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board describes maintenance of activities as work that must continue during a legal work stoppage when it is necessary to prevent an immediate and serious danger to the safety or health of the public.
Employers and bargaining agents must address the issue shortly after notice to bargain. If they cannot reach an agreement, the matter can be referred to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
This is an important distinction. Work does not become an essential activity simply because it is commercially important. The statutory test concerns the prevention of an immediate and serious danger to public health or safety.
Critical Operations Are Central to Business Continuity
Employer strike preparedness also requires a clear command structure.
A strike command centre should connect senior management, operations, human resources, labour relations, legal counsel, communications, security, and other personnel who are responsible for the organization’s response.
The purpose is to ensure that the strike command centre coordinates decisions.
Workplace access problems, picket activity, management movements, security incidents, supplier disruptions, police communication, and legal concerns should move through established reporting and escalation procedures.
Without a defined command structure, different departments can begin responding independently to the same issue. That can lead to inconsistent instructions, delayed decisions, poor documentation, and unnecessary operational risk.
Effective strike response planning should therefore identify who has decision making authority, who receives incident reports, who communicates with counsel, who deals with police when necessary, and who is responsible for changing operational procedures as conditions develop.
Business Continuity During a Labour Dispute and Workplace Access Is Part of Being Prepared
Even when an employer has personnel who can lawfully continue working, those people still need to reach the workplace.
Workplace access is a critical part of the business continuity during a labour dispute or strike.
Employers should identify primary access points, alternative entrances, emergency routes, anticipated vehicle volumes, delivery schedules, management entry procedures, and escalation protocols before labour action begins.
Management should coordinate access control during a labour dispute with the broader operational plan.
Picket line security personnel need to understand who can authorize access decisions, who reports incidents, who notifies managers, who collects evidence, and who decides when to refer an issue to police or legal counsel.
The objective of picket line management should not be confrontation with lawful picketing. Effective labour dispute security should support professionalism, situational awareness, protection of people and assets, lawful workplace access, and reliable information for management.
Evidence Collection Strengthens Labour Dispute Planning
Employers should plan evidence collection during labour disputes in advance.
Once a strike or lockout becomes active, managers may be dealing with vehicle delays, unusual picket activity, access problems, allegations, supplier disruption, confrontations, or police attendance.
Trying to create an evidence process after these events have already occurred can create significant gaps.
A consistent documentation process should record the date, time, location, people involved, relevant vehicle information, actions taken, and operational impact of each significant incident.
Photographs and video can support written reports when appropriate, but context remains important. A short recording may capture only one part of a longer event.
Good documentation provides management, legal counsel, and the strike command centre with a reliable chronology of what occurred. This information can support operational decisions and may also become important if legal proceedings develop.
The 2024 Rail Dispute Shows the Importance of Business Continuity
The August 2024 labour dispute involving Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City provides a useful example of how quickly a Canadian labour dispute can affect wider operations.
On August 22, 2024, both railways locked out workers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference. At Canadian Pacific Kansas City, employees also began strike action. The dispute affected close to 9,300 workers. Federal government briefing material reported that the disruption halted approximately 830,000 tonnes of goods valued at about $1.1 billion.
The federal Minister of Labour subsequently directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order the resumption of operations and impose final and binding arbitration. The Board issued orders on August 24, 2024, and railway operations began resuming on August 26.
Transport Canada later reported that labour disruptions involving Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, and major Canadian ports affected rail performance during the second half of 2024.
This dispute occurred before the new replacement worker provisions under Bill C 58 came into force. It should therefore not be presented as an example of how the new replacement worker restrictions operate.
It does demonstrate how a major Canadian work stoppage can affect organizations well beyond the employer and bargaining unit directly involved.
Transportation networks, suppliers, customers, inventories, and businesses located far from the dispute can all be affected.
This is one reason business continuity planning matters even when an organization is not currently expecting its own strike or lockout.
Business Continuity During a Labour Dispute Requires Advance Planning
Replacement worker restrictions reinforce an important operational lesson. Business continuity during a labour dispute or strike cannot depend solely on finding people to fill vacant shifts.
A complete labour dispute contingency plan should identify critical operations, confirm the applicable legal framework, establish a command structure, prepare workplace access procedures, protect managers and other personnel, coordinate labour dispute security, and establish reliable communication and documentation systems.
The purpose is not to eliminate every consequence of a strike or lockout. That is rarely realistic.
The objective is to preserve lawful options, reduce avoidable confusion, protect people and assets, and maintain as much operational continuity during a labour dispute as the circumstances and applicable labour law permit.
For organizations approaching collective bargaining, the best time to test these systems is before the first picket line appears.
Once Canadian strike action or a Canadian lockout begins, weaknesses in communication, access control, management protection, evidence collection, security deployment, and decision making become much more difficult to correct.