Canadian Labour Congress backs HSA complaint against BC government's imposed health contract

Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, is supporting complaints against the Government of British Columbia made by the Health Sciences Association of BC to the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the legislation passed in the summer that restricted health science professionals collective bargaining rights and imposed a two-tiered wage contract on the unions representing the 14,000 members.

"We view these two pieces of legislation as anti-union laws designed to impose the employers bargaining position on the unions involved ... a bargaining position that was arbitrary and that had an unfair and unequal impact on our members included in the bargaining unit," Georgetti says in a letter to Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

HSA filed the complaint through its national organization, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

"Health science professionals had their collective bargaining rights stripped away last summer, and the government violated some fundamental principles in forcing the employers bargaining position through heavy-handed legislation," said Jeanne Meyers, HSAs Executive Director of Legal Services.

"Premier Gordon Campbell has made it clear this was just the beginning of violating principles of free collective bargaining. As we brace for coming attacks on working people in British Columbia, its important that we continue to let the international community know there is a case to be made against the anti-worker agenda this Liberal government is rolling out," Meyers said.

The International Labour Organization is the labour body of the United Nations.