Labour — Continued
Strategic Context
This section of the Annual Report provides an overview of the context within which Labour operates and highlights activities undertaken and advancements made to manage opportunities and to mitigate risks.
Labour's programs touch all working people in British Columbia, and they operate in a context where:
- Continuing efforts to enhance British Columbia's labour relations environment will support government's goal to create more jobs per capita than anywhere else in Canada;
- The Workers Compensation Act, the Employment Standards Act, and the Labour Relations Code recognize one size does not fit all in a modern and changing work environment and provide the foundation for an expanded economy and diversification;
- Enhancing compliance with employment standards legislation means increasing public education and awareness and focusing enforcement efforts on our most vulnerable workers to provide protection to those who need it most;
- Continuing strong employment growth puts pressure on the labour market and workplaces, which can lead to the potential for less stable labour relations; and
- Continuing strong employment growth within the construction industry and within high-hazard sectors like mining and forestry and among less experienced workers who are at greater risk of work-place injury has also necessitated a greater emphasis on injury prevention and occupational health and safety initiatives, which is reflected by WorkSafeBC — the new name of the Workers' Compensation Board.
To capitalize on opportunities and mitigate risks, strategies which defined deliverables were identified in the 2005/06 – 2007/08 Service Plan Update and were implemented over this past year. Results are described more completely in the Performance Report section.
Key advances include the following specific initiatives.
In April 2005, government announced its intent to have WorkSafeBC (formerly the Workers' Compensation Board) recognize certain cancers can arise where a worker is employed full-time as a firefighter, and has been regularly exposed to the hazards of a fire scene, other than a forest fire scene, over certain periods of time. Legislative changes to the Workers Compensation Act were introduced in October 2005 to give effect to this commitment. In November 2005, this commitment was extended to British Columbia's volunteer, part-time and paid on-call firefighters.
In August 2005, the Province participated in negotiations to appoint a task force to examine industrial relations and transportation issues affecting B.C. ports, and devise a long-term strategy to resolve outstanding issues. Activities in the Port of Vancouver returned to normal after a Ministry-appointed facilitator led talks to resolve the dispute involving the container truck drivers that began June 16, 2005.
In September 2005, a new truck safety program was launched to identify strategies that improve safety for truckers. The program is looking for ways to equip, educate, and empower drivers to meet their own safety needs, and contribute to the safety of other drivers on B.C. roads.
In October 2005, the Province introduced legislation to extend the collective agreement between the British Columbia Teachers' Federation and the British Columbia Public School Employers' Association until June 30, 2006. Also in October, the provincial government appointed a one-person Industrial Inquiry Commission to recommend a new collective bargaining structure for teachers and school employers. An interim Industrial Inquiry Commission Report was released January 2006 and further options on the teachers' collective bargaining system were presented to government on April 2, 2006.
In January 2006, the Honourable Michael de Jong and the Honourable Rich Coleman participated in the B.C. Forest Fatality Summit, resulting in the appointment of a forest coroner among other initiatives.
In February 2006, the Workers' Compensation Appeal Tribunal succeeded in virtually eliminating the bulk of the appeal backlog it had inherited, from 22,446 to 203 outstanding appeals.
In March 2006, the Employment Standards Act was amended to provide compassionate care leave. This gives an employee who requests time away from his or her job up to eight weeks of unpaid leave to provide care or support to an immediate family member who is terminally ill.
Also in March 2006, 55 public sector collective agreements covering more than 187,000 employees were successfully negotiated prior to the expiry of their previous agreements, and without any strikes or lockouts.
Linkage to the Five Great Goals
Labour aligns to all of the Five Great Goals because its policies and services affect every citizen and worker in the province, whether unionized or non-unionized. Of key relevance to Labour's mission is the government goal to create more jobs per capita than anywhere else in Canada.
