Strikes, Lockouts and Picketing in Quebec

Overview

The legality of collective pressure depends on several distinct questions: what conduct occurred, whether the right to stop work had been acquired, how that right was exercised, and what obligations continued during the dispute. A favourable strike vote answers only one question. A lawful stoppage also leaves room for unlawful conduct, including intimidation, prohibited replacement work or failure to maintain required services.

This lesson addresses the Quebec Labour Code, CQLR, c. C-27. Federal enterprises follow a different regime. Within Quebec jurisdiction, the general rules must be read with the provisions applicable to public services and the public and parapublic sectors. Since November 30, 2025, services protecting population well-being and a separate ministerial arbitration power add rules with different conditions and exclusions.

Learning Objectives

• Classify pressure tactics and distinguish acquisition of a right from requirements governing its exercise.
• Apply replacement-worker restrictions, expressive freedoms and employment protections to a concrete dispute.
• Select the applicable public-protection regime and the proper decision-maker or remedy.

Classifying the conduct and its constitutional protection

A strike (grève) requires cessation of work, concerted action (action concertée) and a group of employees under section 1(g) of the Labour Code. Remaining at a workstation while collectively refusing required duties can meet the test. Calling the event a meeting or making it last only minutes does not settle its legal character. An isolated employee ordinarily cannot strike, except where that employee constitutes the entire bargaining unit.

Coordination need not take the form of a written union directive. Simultaneous refusals may support an inference of concertation, although evidence of independent reasons can rebut it. Identify the work normally required, the acts or omissions alleged, and the evidence connecting employees' decisions. A common grievance supplies context; it does not dispense with proof of the conduct itself.

A slowdown is separately prohibited by section 108 of the Labour Code. Employees cannot assume that performing less work preserves a lawful alternative to a strike. The classification of a coordinated overtime refusal depends on the duties and context. Recognition that concerted conduct constitutes a strike does not establish that it is a lawful exercise of an acquired right. A tactic limited to certain groups within a unit also requires examination of the rules governing a complete stoppage by that unit during the chosen period.

A lockout (lock-out) adds a purpose requirement. Under section 1(h) of the Labour Code, the employer refuses work to compel acceptance of employment conditions, including by assisting pressure against another employer's employees. A genuine operational shutdown does not become a lockout merely because negotiations are tense. Evidence must establish both the refusal to provide work and the coercive objective. An employer can initiate a lockout before a strike, subject to statutory conditions.

Freedom of association protects meaningful collective bargaining and the right to strike. In Saskatchewan Federation of Labour c. Saskatchewan, 2015 CSC 4, the Supreme Court connected strike action with employees' ability to negotiate collectively. Restrictions on essential-service employees were constitutionally defective in the circumstances, including the absence of an effective, fair alternative dispute-resolution mechanism. The judgment does not remove every statutory restriction or grant an equivalent constitutional right to lock out employees.

Acquiring and exercising pressure rights

The certified association (association accréditée) must first have obtained certification. Section 106 of the Labour Code prohibits a recognition strike intended to force recognition of an uncertified association. Certification fixes the employees for whom subsequent conditions must be assessed. A union representing several units cannot use one unit's bargaining timetable as authorization for every other unit.

The notice to bargain (avis de négociation) opens bargaining and supplies the starting point for the statutory period. Sections 52, 52.2 and 58 of the Labour Code operate together. Ordinarily, the right is acquired 90 days after receipt of the notice. When no notice is given for renewal, receipt is deemed to occur on expiry of the agreement. For a newly certified association, deemed receipt occurs 90 days after certification. These different starting points produce different practical results.

An existing collective agreement ordinarily prevents a strike during its term under section 107 of the Labour Code. A reopening clause requires examination of the applicable bargaining rules; dissatisfaction with a clause alone creates no right to stop work. Agreement to submit the bargaining dispute to arbitration, or a decision to determine a first agreement through the applicable arbitration procedure, can also terminate access to pressure tactics. Sections 58 and 93.5 govern those situations.

For the general regime, the employer's entitlement to lock out employees follows acquisition of their strike right under section 109 of the Labour Code. Separate prohibitions remain applicable, including those affecting municipal police officers and firefighters. The employer's unilateral decision replaces a union authorization process, but cannot replace the legal conditions.

Worked example: a vote before the bargaining period ends

Factual Scenario

A certified union receives overwhelming support for a strike. Its notice to bargain was received 50 days earlier, and no deemed receipt or special rule changes that date. Employees propose to stop work the following morning because negotiations have become unproductive.

Authorization, notice and the consequences of defects

Section 20.2 of the Labour Code requires authorization by secret ballot (scrutin secret), with a majority of votes cast by members of the certified association within the bargaining unit. The association must take necessary steps to inform members at least 48 hours before the ballot. The denominator is participating eligible members, rather than every employee in the unit.

Since April 2, 2026, section 20.3.2 of the Labour Code also requires voting to remain available over at least 12 hours. This applies to the strike ballot. Section 3 of the 2026 governance legislation introduced the provision; section 28 determines commencement. It already applies, although some other provisions commence on October 2, 2026. A brief ballot during a meeting cannot be assessed using the older notice rule alone.

The Code distinguishes these obligations from acquisition of the strike right. Section 20.4 establishes the penal consequence of non-compliance with the specified democratic requirements. The jurisprudence does not treat a breach of section 20.2 as automatically rendering the strike illegal under section 106. That distinction identifies the remedy without making compliance optional. Union statutes may impose more demanding requirements under section 20.5.

Under section 58.1 of the Labour Code, the association must notify the minister in writing within 48 hours after declaring the strike and state the number of employees involved. This general notice differs from advance notice in special public-service regimes. Confusing them can produce an incorrect timetable.

Picketing, boycotts and conduct during the dispute

Picketing communicates a labour dispute through presence, signs, leaflets and collective expression. The analysis changes when someone threatens a person, blocks access, damages property or intrudes on protected private space. Economic inconvenience caused by communication does not itself prove an unlawful act, while a lawful strike does not authorize every method of protest.

Secondary picketing (piquetage secondaire) is not automatically unlawful because it occurs near a supplier or customer. In S.D.G.M.R., s.l. 558 c. Pepsi-Cola Canada Beverages (West) Ltd., [2002] 1 R.C.S. 156, the Supreme Court approached picketing as protected expression whose limits turn on wrongful conduct. A Quebec dispute still requires application of Quebec civil-law rules and relevant property, privacy and expression rights. The common-law terminology of the underlying judgment should not replace that analysis.

A boycott appeals to others to withhold purchases. Its economic pressure must similarly be distinguished from threats, defamatory statements or other wrongful acts. Section 3 of the Quebec Charter protects expression; privacy protection under section 5 of that Charter and arts. 3 and 35 CCQ informs the limits. An order should address proven interference rather than presume that every message damaging sales is prohibited.

Worked example: informing customers at a supplier's entrance

Factual Scenario

During a lawful strike, employees distribute accurate leaflets on a public sidewalk outside a supplier. Customers enter freely. Later, several participants chain an access gate and threaten a delivery driver. The supplier requests an injunction prohibiting any union presence nearby.

Replacement work and continuity of employment

Section 109.1 of the Labour Code restricts replacement workers (briseurs de grève) during a lawful strike or a lockout. Its detailed categories matter. The section addresses persons hired after bargaining begins, outside labour, employees of other establishments, certain managers and employees outside the affected unit, and use of affected employees themselves. These public-order restrictions preserve the practical effect of a stoppage.

Identify four facts before applying a paragraph: who performs the duties, when that person was hired or assigned, which duties are performed, and the establishment to which the work relates. The enterprise and its establishment are not interchangeable. Managers already attached to the affected establishment before bargaining began occupy a different position from newly hired managers or managers brought from another establishment.

For example, the prohibition on using a person hired after bargaining began covers a manager as well as an ordinary employee. A pre-existing manager of the affected establishment can generally perform duties there, whereas transferring a manager from another establishment raises a different prohibition. Hiring before bargaining therefore answers only part of the inquiry. An ordinary non-unit employee already working at the affected establishment remains subject to the restriction governing performance of struck duties there.

Use of members of the affected unit is also controlled, including work in another establishment of the same employer. A worker's willingness to return individually cannot displace the applicable collective restrictions. The Code provides exceptions through qualifying agreements and required-service decisions. Their scope must be read before treating an assignment as authorized. An agreement to preserve one operation cannot silently authorize all production to resume.

Location needs care when work is subcontracted, mobile or performed remotely. Section 109.1 contains restrictions whose wording differs by category; the traditional analysis of work outside the affected establishment cannot become a universal permission to replace employees through telework. Establish how work is organized, its connection to the establishment and the applicable interpretation of the particular paragraph before concluding that physical distance disposes of the issue.

The Code permits specified work through agreements and decisions concerning services to be maintained. Section 109.3 permits necessary measures to prevent destruction or serious deterioration of property. Conservation measures cannot serve as a means of continuing ordinary production contrary to section 109.1. The equipment at risk, mechanism of deterioration and work needed to prevent it should be documented.

Under section 109.4 of the Labour Code, an investigation may be requested through the minister. The investigator's report supplies evidence; it does not replace the Tribunal administratif du travail's adjudicative role. A union seeking a provisional compliance order should address the apparent right, serious or irreparable prejudice, and balance of inconvenience. Penal proceedings and administrative compliance remedies have different purposes and evidentiary requirements.

Section 110 of the Labour Code preserves employee status despite a strike or lockout. Continuity does not entitle strikers to ordinary pay for work not performed. Nor does it confer immunity for a separate, proven reason for discipline. Distinguish penalizing protected participation from establishing another lawful basis for the employer's decision.

At the end of the stoppage, section 110.1 of the Labour Code protects recovery of employment in preference to another person, unless the employer establishes a just and sufficient cause preventing reinstatement. A genuine disappearance of the job may therefore matter. The association may refer a disagreement to arbitration as a grievance within six months after the date on which the employee should have recovered employment. Reprisal remedies under sections 15 and following require their own analysis and deadlines.

Public protection requires the correct statutory regime

Essential services and sector-specific notice

Public services include public and private operations identified by the Code or brought within the relevant mechanism. For services covered by a decision under section 111.0.17 of the Labour Code, the TAT determines whether a strike could endanger public health or safety. Public ownership and inconvenience do not, alone, establish essential services (services essentiels).

The parties negotiate an agreement identifying required services and how they will be provided. Failing agreement, the association supplies a list, which the TAT evaluates under sections 111.0.18 and 111.0.19 of the Labour Code. Evidence concerns the actual service, users, duration, season, alternatives and personnel needed. The obligation protects health and safety while retaining room for effective strike action.

Section 111.0.23 of the Labour Code requires at least seven clear working days of advance notice in a public service, addressed to the minister and the other party, and to the TAT where required. Where essential services must be maintained, a separate period also runs from filing the agreement or list. Since November 30, 2025, the notice provisions also address lockouts where permitted. Section 111.0.26 prohibits a lockout in a public service subject to the specified essential-services decision.

Health and social services establishments follow their own approval mechanism. Sections 111.10.1 and 111.12 of the Labour Code require an approved or deemed-approved agreement or list and observance of the applicable 90-day period measured from transmission to the employer. The Tribunal's approval process has its own timetable; the two recipients and dates must be distinguished. Section 111.11 adds advance notice. Intensive-care and emergency units must function normally, and access to services must continue. An outdated fixed staffing percentage cannot replace the statutory service assessment. Public-service employees governed by the Public Service Act have a separate mechanism under section 69 of that Act.

Population well-being and ministerial intervention

The population well-being regime, operative since November 30, 2025, addresses disproportionate effects on social, economic or environmental security, especially for vulnerable people. Under sections 111.22.2 and 111.22.3 of the Labour Code, its scope and exclusions differ from essential services. Government departments and agencies whose staff are appointed under the Public Service Act, and specified health and social services establishments, are excluded. An educational institution's position cannot be inferred from the health-sector exclusion.

A government order first designates an employer and association. A designated party may then ask the TAT to require services under sections 111.22.4 and 111.22.5 of the Labour Code. Designation does not itself determine which services must continue. Following the Tribunal's decision, the parties have seven clear working days to negotiate services under section 111.22.7. The TAT assesses sufficiency and determines services where necessary under sections 111.22.8 and 111.22.9.

The decision applies to the current bargaining round. Under section 111.22.11 of the Labour Code, an ongoing stoppage ordinarily continues through this process, although exceptional circumstances can justify suspension. Distinguish designation, the decision imposing an obligation, the content of services and any suspension order. Each has a different effect.

A separate power under sections 111.32.1 and 111.32.2 of the Labour Code allows the minister to refer a dispute to arbitration when a strike or lockout causes or threatens serious or irreparable harm to the population and conciliation or mediation has failed. This power has its own exclusions, including the public and parapublic sectors. An ongoing stoppage ends at the date and time specified in the minister's notice. This route must be distinguished from the TAT's determination of minimum services.

Ending the dispute and choosing a remedy

A return-to-work protocol (protocole de retour au travail) can address recall arrangements, disciplinary files, outstanding proceedings and restart conditions. Its provisions must respect public order. Where it forms part of the collective agreement, the unity and filing requirements under sections 67 and 72 of the Labour Code matter. Ending picketing, returning employees and bringing the agreement into force are related events whose dates may differ.

A practical protocol should identify which workers return, when their shifts begin and how any staggered restart is justified. It should state the treatment of pending proceedings rather than assume that every complaint disappears when bargaining succeeds. If an employer retains replacement personnel while refusing the return of affected employees, the agreement ending the conflict does not by itself answer the statutory reinstatement question. Preserve the date when each employee should have returned and the employer's actual explanation.

Choose the forum by the source and substance of the alleged wrong. The TAT enforces Labour Code obligations through powers including section 111.33; the grievance arbitrator determines matters arising from the collective agreement; ordinary courts retain matters properly grounded in civil wrongdoing. Penal offences follow the penal route. A compliance claim, compensation claim and prosecution are not interchangeable merely because all arise during the same strike.

Practice Checklist

• Identify jurisdiction, bargaining unit, conduct and evidence of concertation or coercive purpose.
• Calculate acquisition dates separately from ballot, advance-notice and service-maintenance requirements.
• Verify 48-hour ballot information and the applicable 12-hour voting period.
• Map replacement work to the statutory category, establishment and exception.
• Distinguish essential services, population well-being services and ministerial arbitration.
• Preserve reinstatement dates, grievance or complaint deadlines and evidence supporting the remedy.