Solving the Productivity Problem

Hint: it’s not about the worker

By Andrew Regnerus, Ontario Construction Coordinator

I see the topic come across our news feeds. I hear about it from management, especially at bargaining time. The issue is productivity, generally, and sometimes gets focused on worker improvements that are needed.

I get triggered when a contractor asks how our union is addressing the “productivity problem,” as one did at a recent contractor event. I get defensive. Maybe needlessly so.

In this context, I hear a demand that workers work harder or more efficiently. The worker advocate part of my brain goes on alert, and I think of reasons that productivity issues are not the worker’s fault.

It is true that Canada’s productivity has decreased and is lower than that of other nations. Some of this may be labour and some may be that we must move things vast distances over unfriendly terrain.

Some of the lost productivity diminishes quality of life: lower hourly pay means people working more hours at more jobs at a cost of family time, less compassionate leave, and a smaller social safety net causing workers to work when sick, when baby is a month old, when a parent or kid is sick, or when they are 70 years old. Productivity has social consequences.

I’m glad that it is well-accepted that productivity is largely outside the worker’s control. Supply chain issues, bad project specs, bad weather, inefficient bureaucracy and antiquated regulations, trade interference on site, poor communication between office and job site, an oversupply of craft on site, and supervision styles that do not foster efficiency are all contributors.

So, CLAC is doing something. One response to improve workers’ time on task is better supervision. CLAC developed its own supervisory program, which has modules on work scheduling, worker communication, and more. These things, when done well, will improve the amount of time a worker is on the tools.

A study of time on task in the petrochemical industry in Alberta many years ago found that about 38 percent of paid time is on task. Wow! Increasing efficiency to just 50 percent would differentiate from the competition!

Where are workers spending the other 62 percent of their time? A lot of it is waiting. Waiting for materials, for equipment, tools, for instructions. Some of the time is spent on walkabouts to search for the things workers need.

When workers have the things they need, they do the work. Most work hard to finish the task efficiently and safely. That is why I push back when the union is asked to address productivity.

Of course, workers can be more efficient. Some can use their phones less during paid time. They can keep break times to what they are supposed to be.

One of the things that the union can do is to participate in conversations with management. Supervisors set the tone for phone use and break times and can break some bad habits that may have developed in a workplace’s culture.

For the small portion that productivity is about workers, labour and management can dialogue to create improvements. But let’s remember that improving productivity is mostly not about the worker.