Today in the BC Legislature we continued our debate on Bill 30: Labour Relations Code Amendment Act, 2019 at committee stage. Recall from my second reading speech, this bill amends the labour relations code to make a number of changes to enhance protections for workers and implement the recommendations of an independent expert review panel.

During debate on section 6 of the bill, the BC Liberals proposed an amendment concerning when and how raids can and should be allowed for. In particular, their amendment to section 6 was designed to bring the government’s proposed changes more in line with the recommendations of the independent panel.

Supporting evidence-based policy that restores protections for workers and ends pendulum swings in the labour code have been priorities for the B.C. Greens.

My colleagues, staff and I engaged numerous stakeholders to develop a deeper understanding about the forces at play and concluded — as did the panel — that construction labour law is particularly unique. Because of these unique challenges, which include the transient versus stationary nature of the work place, we believed that it was essential to not simply pass Bill 30 legislation and move on. The construction industry and its workers deserve a thorough review; this hasn’t happened since at least 1998.

The B.C. Green caucus is in strong support of creating an independent panel mandated to address the unique realities of the construction sector, and to expand upon the recommendations of the current Labour Relations Code Review Panel. Until such an independent review is conducted, we felt it was prudent to follow the advice set out by the current review panel, and therefore supported the amendment (which allowed it to pass – see vote above). If a deeper dive identifies challenges with this, I hope that all members of the House would be prepared to support additional changes. We have heard loud and clear that there are numerous questions that remain unanswered and want to ensure a process is established that can get politicians objective analysis and recommendations to act upon.

More than anything, BC Greens believe that the legislation, which passed committee stage today, will go a long ways towards ending the ideological labour code tug-of-war that has been allowed to dominate labour code policy in BC for the past 30 years. We believe it will bring fairness, certainty and stability back to the labour code.

The BC Liberals also introduced a second amendment to section 8 of this bill that we could not support (for reasons outlined below – see vote to the left) as we believed it strayed from the intent of the independent panel’s recommendation.

While this bill took up an enormous amount of our caucus and staff time, I personally found the debates to be an excellent example of how the BC Legislature functions at its best. At all times, and at all stages of the debate, the decorum in the chamber was one of mutual respect. It was clear that Harry Bains, the BC NDP Minister of Labour and the opposition critics were passionate in their views but respectful in understanding the difference of opinions in the room.

I look forward to working with both government and the official opposition to further advance a labour policy review for the construction sector.

Below I reproduce the video and text of my speeches to the two amendments. I also provide a copy of some brief rebuttal remarks I made after the Minister of Labour spoke. At the end of this post, I reproduce the media statement our office released after the passage of the bill.

Videos of Committee Stage Debates

Text of Speech in Support of 1st Amendment

A. Weaver: I rise to take my place to speak to the amendment that was brought forward by the member for Shuswap.

As we know, Bill 30 is a unique piece of labour legislation. It’s one of the first pieces of labour law that has received the broad support of members in this House.

Over the last 30 years, we’ve watched as labour policy in this province swings back and forth like a pendulum as government changed and as ideological fights play out. Putting an end to these pendulum swings, which create instability and division, was essential for our caucus. We further believe, as a caucus, in supporting evidence-based policy that ensures the protection of workers.

In this regard, the work of the expert review panel was essential. They made balanced and thoughtful recommendations as to how we could and should update our labour code in the province of British Columbia.

The amendment before us today, brought forward by the member for Shuswap, addresses one of the very few areas where what the government brought forward in the legislation before us differs from what the panel recommended.

Over the last few months, my colleagues, staff and I engaged with numerous stakeholders to develop a deeper understanding about the various forces at play in this issue of labour policy. What we learned through extensive consultation engagement is that construction labour law in the province of British Columbia is particularly unique. Yet my colleagues and I know that we are not the experts.

What rose from our engagement is the realization as to how essential it is to not simply pass the legislation, as is amended, and to move on from these issues, but rather to take the time to look deeper into construction labour law.

There are a number of challenges facing the construction industry that we firmly believe need to be explored further, including, of course, the question raised in the amendment before us concerning when and how raids can and should be allowed for. The panel itself acknowledged that there are construction-specific issues that relate to the changing labour code.

The B.C. Green caucus understands the profoundly unique nature of the construction industry. There are a number of examples that can be given. We know, for example, that in public sector unions or public sector sites, often people are in the same place for their job — on the construction site. We know that safety is often front and centre in deliberations on the site. We know that workers move from site to site to site. We know that is a very different type of working environment than, say, a stationary environment where you work in the same place.

We understand the special challenges that exist. We understand that there are unions like CMAW, like IUOE and others who actually are end-to-end project unions. We know, also, that present rules within the B.C. Federation of Labour do not allow unions to raid other unions in the Federation. So in the spirit of fairness and openness and transparency, this, to us, must be collectively addressed.

We understand that the construction sector needs a review. We understand that changes need to be there. But we also understand that the terms of reference of the panel precluded them from singling out this sector to actually provide a separate report and suite of recommendations for the construction sector.

In our view, we accept the numerous voices that told us that what they were seeing — whether you’re a representative from a union like CLAC or a union like IUOE or a union that wasn’t in the building trade, represented by the B.C. Fed — is that they’re looking for a fair and level playing field.

That is exactly what we’re looking for, one that’s grounded in evidence, not in ideology.

I come to this again, and I say this. IUOE, an end-to-end organizing union — let us suppose, hypothetically, that they go to a construction site and recognize that on that construction site, the workers there are being represented by an additional union, and that environment is not safe. Or, perhaps, there’s a multitude of unions. The IUOE, right now, is prohibited from raiding into those areas, if said unions there already are members of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Now I come to the nurses’ union, when there was concern within the licenced practitional nurses with respect to them being represented by the health employers union. The concern was such that the licensed practition nurses felt that they would be better represented by the nurses’ union. A raid happened. The response, of course, was that the nurses’ union was kicked out of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Is that fair? Is that actually what we’re aspiring to, here in the province of British Columbia? No. I think we’re aspiring to fair and transparent workplaces — that is, fair for all, not just for the chosen few and not just for those who have stood forward and actually have stronger influence, perhaps, with government than others.

That is why we are calling on the government to undertake a comprehensive, independent review of the construction sector, in addition to supporting the amendment before us now. There does not appear, in British Columbia, to have been a comprehensive review of this industry since 1998.

Now I’m not counting the kind of — what I would argue is a very one-sided — so-called review that occurred in the early 2000s, when the Liberals took over back then, because the building trades weren’t invited to the table. I’m not accounting a self-reflective review that’s also happened.

A proper fundamental review of how labour policy should be applied in the construction sector, I think, is long overdue in this province, because we know that in other provinces in the country, like Ontario, there are a hybridization of labour laws — one that treats stationary workplaces and one that treats transient workplaces or places where you’re not on the same site every day. We cannot expect the same labour policy to apply to stationary and transitory workplaces. The fact that we’re trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole, to take bits and pieces of what the independent expert committee has recommended, is troubling to the caucus, because we appeal to experts for our advice.

We know, and we understand, and we heard from the construction sector that many of the sweeping changes that have been brought historically hurt that sector. We appreciate that. We understand that. We heard that. That is why we urge the government to commission a further sectoral review of labour laws in the construction sector. We support an independent review. We support a timely independent review, one with short time frames and one that looks at the unique realities of this sector of the economy and expands on the recommendations of the current labour relation code review panel.

In my view and in my caucus’s view, by doing this, we can ensure that we bring forward policy to this table that does create a fair, balanced, level playing field, grounded in evidence, not ideological or historical positions. I think, ultimately, that’s what most workers want. They want the opportunity for a fair and open workplace.

Until such time as this separate review can take place, we felt it was prudent to follow the advice set out by the current review panel and, therefore, support the amendment to ensure its language is reflected in this legislation. If a deeper dive identifies challenges with this, I hope that all members of this House would be open and prepared to support additional changes. Our caucus is. We’ve heard loud and clear that there are numerous questions that remain unanswered and want to ensure that a process is established that gets politicians objective analysis and recommendations to act upon.

More than anything, we believe, as a caucus, that we must end this ideological tug-of-war that has been allowed to take place in our province for far too long. It is not about union versus employer. It is not about worker versus employer. It is about doing what’s right to create a fair and balanced work environment for all workers in British Columbia. I think that that only will happen if we actually target this industry with a separate, independent, thoughtful review of the construction sector.

Further Remarks to 1st Amendment

A. Weaver: I just wanted to rise and address a couple of the comments there. I do appreciate the minister, and I think we’re very well served in British Columbia by the minister, who is very fair and open with his deliberations and so forth. I would say that, in listening to the minister’s speech there, he said a few things that were flags to me.

He talked about the fact that this was stopping workers from having a right to…. It does no such change. What we’re saying is that the expert panel recommendations were there as a suite. They were not there to pick and choose. We recognize and we’ve supported all of the recommendations. The important successorship changes — we supported that. In this particular case, what we’re saying is that we don’t think the expert panel did the work that needs to be done to carve out the construction sector and to look at that independently.

Now, the minister has suggested that he has the solution. That’s his view, and that’s fine. It’s his prerogative to have that. Our position is that we don’t have that information. We don’t have that information on which to make a decision in this area, because I suspect that the construction industry would have a lot more that might have to change if we actually went to a review.

I honestly don’t think the construction industry, in the province of British Columbia, has been served well. I don’t think they’ve been served well for many, many years. I come back to the issue that, if there are many sites, those will be represented by a multitude of other unions. But if you are a trade union — a building trade — you cannot raid into those unions. The minister says that that’s their right. It is their right, but it’s also our right as British Columbians to ensure that the playing field is level.

This is not about trying to create an us versus them — us versus CLAC or us versus Unifor or us versus the nurses. This is about recognizing that labour law must represent the diversity of views that are out there and be inclusive and respectful and grounded in evidence that will probably not get what everyone wants but builds forth to a policy that we can actually grow from, as opposed to a pendulum swinging back and forth.

That is one of our singular objectives: to ensure stability, consistency and certainty. We’re not convinced, and certainly no evidence was put for us, that with the change to the summer months, in fact, that will be maintained with an annual, as opposed to the existing recommendation within the panel.

With that, I’ll take my place.

Text of Speech against 2nd Amendment

A. Weaver: I rise to provide support to the minister with respect to his views on this amendment. We understand where the official opposition is coming from. On page 18 of the expert report — as the minister said, it is a superb report — the experts state as follows: “A successor union should be able to apply to the board to have a collective agreement reopened, and the board should have discretion to grant such relief in extraordinary circumstances, having regard to its section 2 duties. This would permit the exercise of this discretion where, for example, terms of the collective agreements are clearly inferior to the norm in the sector.”

The words there were contained in the preamble leading up to the formal recommendation. As the minister pointed out, we believe that in fact the expert panel were, in their recommendations, very thoughtful in terms of the exact usage of language. Were we to add the words “extraordinary circumstances” into the recommendation, I would suggest that this is actually going a step further, because the panel was actually quite careful in not using the words in the actual recommendation.

With that, I will take my place, noting that we will not support this amendment.

Media Release

B.C. Green Caucus Calls for Closer Look Into Construction Industry Labour Code
For immediate release
May 28, 2019

VICTORIA, B.C. –Supporting evidence-based policy that restores protections for workers and ends pendulum swings in the labour code are priorities for the B.C. Greens, and the expert panel’s recommendations should be expanded on to address the unique challenges presented by the construction industry.

“My colleagues, staff and I engaged with a number of stakeholders to develop a deeper understanding about the forces at play and have concluded- as did the panel- that construction labour law is particularly unique,” B.C. Green party leader Andrew Weaver said. “Because of these unique challenges, we believe it is essential that we do not simply pass this legislation and move on. The construction industry and its workers deserves a thorough review, which it hasn’t had since at least 1998. The B.C. Green caucus is strongly in support of a panel mandated to address the unique realities of this sector of the economy, and expands on the recommendations of the current Labour Relation Code Review Panel.

“Until such a time that a separate review, one more focused on the challenges of the constructor sector, can take place, we feel it is prudent to follow that advice set out by the current review panel, and therefore support the amendment to ensure its language is reflected in the legislation. If a deeper dive identifies challenges with this, I hope that all members of this House would be prepared to support additional changes. We have heard loud and clear that there are numerous questions that remain unanswered and want to ensure a process is established that can get politicians objective analysis and recommendations to act upon.”

The B.C. Green caucus supports other significant provisions of this legislation, which take important steps forward to better protect workers and ensure balance in workplaces. These include:

• Extending successorship provisions to protect workers in building cleaning/janitorial services, security services, bus transportation services, non-clinical health care services, and food services;
• Improved access and protection of collective bargaining;
• Removing education as an essential service.

“More than anything, BC Greens believe this legislation will go a long ways towards ending the ideological tug-of-war that has been allowed to destabilize the province’s labour code for the past 30 years.”

These amendments are necessary adjustments to existing labour law, but there is more work to do to address the other fundamental challenges facing the economy.

“Unfortunately, what continues to be missing from the conversation is a focus on how we can adapt our labour laws to support people grappling with the changing nature of work,” Weaver said. “From increases in precarious, gig-based jobs, to the increasing use of contractors instead of employees, British Columbians are dealing with huge changes to job stability and income security, and our laws aren’t keeping up.”

The B.C. Green caucus consults with government to improve fairness for workers and ensure balance in the workplace as part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement.

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Media contact
Macon McGinley, Press Secretary
B.C. Green caucus
+1 250-882-6187 |macon.mcginley@leg.bc.ca