It's true that nothing is currently provided in the code. However, policies were established over the years to manage complaints. Those policies show how a complaint is to be administered. The complaint may be rejected if it is not within our purview, or if it does not come under part III of the code. It can also be rejected if there is no evidence of a problem. All that is provided for in various policies. Policies also stipulate that a payment order should normally not exceed 12 months, for instance.
The problem we are currently facing is that, since we are talking about a policy, anyone can challenge it. If someone was dissatisfied and wanted their complaint to be examined regardless of our policy, we would be in a somewhat difficult situation. Basically, the legislation sets out no parameters regarding that.
Another issue that affects employees is that a policy can be changed at any time. Honestly, it has not been changed often. However, no provisions really clarify what happens when a complaint is rejected.
We told ourselves that this approach worked fairly well in the past, but there is now a real problem involved. We have known for years that there was a problem, but it took a while to resolve it. Within the current context, resources for administering labour standards have to be managed more efficiently. We can no longer afford to move forward, year in, and year out, while relying on approximations. That's why we have decided it was time to really clarify those rules. There is really no reason not to do that.
Once again, does this mean that people could not submit complaints? No, there was a policy, and we are doing our best to administer it and to ensure that workers' rights are properly protected. However, once again, we feel it is preferable to be explicit and clear, and to have really clear rules for everyone that cannot be changed willy-nilly or reinterpreted constantly.