MONTREAL -- Construction employers' associations are meeting Monday morning to decide what to do, hours before a possible general strike in the industry.

They are expected to decide their position on the unions' offer to conclude collective agreements, but deferring debate on the main issue in dispute, namely the use of mobile applications to record work hours on workers' personal phones.

The Alliance Syndicale includes the five industry labour organizations that represent the 190,000 workers.

It is negotiating with four employer associations that represent sub-sectors of the industry.

Wages do not appear to be an issue and progress has been made on pensions and group insurance.

The main point of contention is the use of mobile applications downloaded to the worker's personal phone to record arrival and departure times from the job site, using geolocation.

The employers' associations see this as a simple way to modernize the industry and reduce paperwork, with "time sheets".

They insist that the use of this technology is voluntary. 

The labour alliance sees it as a threat to workers' privacy because of geolocation and the fact that it is the worker's personal device.

The employer associations counter that it is not the intention of employers to track workers all day long when they go to the bathroom, to the coffee shop or to talk to a union representative.

The FTQ-Construction union won its case before the Arbitration Tribunal when it challenged the use of these mobile applications. The tribunal ruled that it violated the collective agreements as written for 2017-2021.

The 2017-2021 agreements state that time recording must be done by a device installed at the employer's expense and as close as possible to the entrance of the worksite.

As part of this negotiation, the parties are therefore seeking to draft clauses to frame the use of this technology in a manner that respects privacy. They must also foresee the fact that there are different suppliers of such applications.

The stakes are high for these providers. One of them, Mobile Punch, specified in an interview with The Canadian Press that it registered 25,000 users per day.

On Sunday evening, the unions proposed to postpone the settlement of this dispute and to sign the collective agreements in the meantime, taking into account the progress that has been made so far in the negotiations.

The postponement would give enough time to await the passage of Bill 64 on the protection of personal information.

The bill is intended to clarify the rules in this area.

The parties would then enter into discussions on geolocation tracking, within the framework provided by the law, the alliance explained.

The employer associations are meeting on Monday morning. The alliance said it is awaiting their response.

Depending on the employer's response, the alliance could decide to launch a general and unlimited strike on Tuesday morning.

It must give 12 to 24 hours notice, but it could also decide not to strike and to continue discussions. 

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 24, 2021.