A smackdown for BC's faux Liberals in Victoria. In a powerful, 6-1 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the collective bargaining process is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court then moved to quash sections of the B.C. Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act as contrary to the Charter because it interfered with the collective bargaining process. From CTV News:
"The law superseded existing contracts and allowed for the contracting-out of non-clinical services, which had been originally carried out by union members. It also eased lay-off notice provisions, tightened up "bumping rights" for senior employees, and cut benefits for laid-off workers.
"Unions were also prevented from attempting to renegotiate some of the provisions in future contracts."
Lower courts in British Columbia had sided with the government, perhaps timidly claiming that the SCC had never expressly held collective bargaining protected by the Charter. Today's ruling puts an end to that facile dodge. The province has been given a year to fix the offending portions of the Act.
2 comments:
Yay! We workers win one for a change.
Actually the Supreme Court quite clearly rejected the idea of a right to collective bargaining in the 1987 Labour trilogy of cases and then again in a far softer tone in the 2001 Dunmore decision. The lower courts weren't being timid. They were bound by the ruling of a superior court. The SCC itself stated that its own older decisions were wrongly decided.
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