Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question.
I did not have enough time to address this aspect of the issue. In my view, this is quite illegal since it means creating two separate pay scales. Under labour laws, we call them “orphan clauses”. There is already a lot of case law and doctrine on the matter. The problem is that tests have never really been done on this.
What is considered legal is giving a different salary to a person just starting a job who does exactly the same type of work as another employee. That does not pose any problems since the decision is based on experience. So pay scales are created. But, in terms of just changing things for economic reasons in order to rebuild the finances of a company on the backs of new employees, I think we are going to have some serious debates in court on those issues. In my humble opinion as a lawyer who has been practising since the time when the hon. member was born, that is totally illegal.