BC businesses will be hoping that the new BC NDP is not as infatuated with old Labour as the old BC NDP was.
Upcoming changes to the B.C. Labour Relations Code will provide a good reckoning of whether that affair has matured for the benefit of enterprise in the province or whether we are headed for more counterproductive workplace squabbles.
On the positive side, the panel recommended retaining the secret ballot vote in union certification drives.
However, an initial consideration of recommended code changes from the three-person public consultation panel raises several concerns that the code’s balance might be shifting back in favour of labour.
For example, the panel recommends shortening the period between an application and a vote to unionize a workplace to five days from 10. Reducing the time employees have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of unionizing their workplace short-changes them and their employer in what is an extremely important decision for both.
Also of concern for parents and the public education system’s clientele is the recommendation that education no longer be considered an essential service in B.C.
If education is not essential in the new information age, what is?
Expect more disruptions ahead for a public school system in B.C. whose quality is already compromised by far too many.
The panel also recommended a labour code review at least every five years, which provides for little long-term certainty on either side of the union-management negotiating table.
The Labour Ministry has also opened the door to additional consultations running into next year following the release of the panel’s report in late October. That smacks of invitations to adjust the panel’s amendments to favour lobby groups or political parties that might be dissatisfied with recommended changes.
So old Labour and new NDP might well be rekindling their old flame after all.
If so, expect more tears than joy on the horizon for the province’s business community.
