Canada: Review Of The BC Labour Relations Code: Submissions From Public Due By March 1, 2024

Every five years, the BC Minister of Labour must appoint a committee of special advisors to review the British Columbia Labour Relations Code (the "Code"), and that committee must conduct consultations when undertaking its review of the Code.

A 3-member panel was appointed in January 2024, and has announced that the public and interest groups, including employers and workers, have up until 4:30pm on March 1, 2024 to submit recommendations for changes to the Code. Written submissions, which can be made anonymously, can be emailed to lrcreview@gov.bc.ca; these submissions may be posted to the govTogetherBC's Labour Relations Code Review 2024 website. The written submission can also indicate whether that person or organization wishes to attend one of the scheduled in-person or virtual public hearings to make an oral presentation. Alternatively, there is also an option to make an oral-only submission at a public hearing, but the panel must receive email notice by 4:30pm on March 1, 2024, indicating the selected date and location of the in-person or virtual hearing, and the oral submission will only be heard if time permits.

After the scheduled hearings, the panel has until May 31, 2024 to provide to the Ministry of Labour, its recommendations for amendments to the Code.

In its information bulletin earlier this month, the Ministry of Labour did not indicate what potential changes may be coming to Code, but noted that the panel will consider recent changes to labour legislation across Canada. And, in its first letter to the public, the panel noted that it "is interested in your views regarding any changes to the Code you believe are necessary in order to properly reflect the needs an interests of workers and employers in the context of our modern economic realities". As indicated in the government backgrounder, some key changes in the previous review round in 2018-2019 were in respect of: contract flipping and union certification, including the re-introduction of single-step certification.

We look forward to providing you with further information regarding any proposed changes and once changes to the Labour Relations Code are announced.

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