Government and Health Unions strike a deal on Bill 29

Last June the Supreme Court of Canada struck down portions of Bill 29 for being in breach of the s.2(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This landmark decision ruled that the freedom of association guaranteed by s. 2(d) included the right of unions to collective bargaining. The Court gave the BC government a year to deal with the consequences of the decision. Among the provisions that were struck down was the one that removed contracting out protection from the collective agreement. This was the provision that allowed health employers to contract out nearly all non-direct patient care services taking good paying jobs away from 8000 workers and creating a ghetto of low payinng cleaning, dietary and other support work. The question was what to do about all the workers who had lost their jobs.

This week the health unions and the government announced that they had reached an agreement that would see over 70 million dollars allocated to deal with the laid off workers.

It might seem like a paltry amount when looked at in the context of what each of those workers lost. And of course it is. But it's good news that a deal was struck. The government's strategy was obviously one of testing the strength of the Supreme Court's decision. For the decision essentially says that the obligation on the government is to engage in good faith bargaining and only after that has failed, can the government resort to legislation. The decision says a lot more, of course, but for this purpose, that's what the government would rely on. In other words, negotiate, but if there's no agreement, pass legislation to impose what you failed to negotiate, or worse. As for redress for all those workers who lost their jobs, the government no doubt counted on the Hislop case, another SCC decision, that says these kinds of rulings have no retrospective application. My suggestion then is that absent a deal the unions were gambling that the government would pass bad legislation that could very well survive a court challenge, and the laid off workers could have ended up with nothing. That's why it's good news that a deal was struck.