The labour movement has always been politically active. Through our engagement, working people have won many important legislative rights, including the legal right to form and join a union; the creation of employment standards that govern hours of work, working conditions and a minimum wage; and laws to protect workers’ health and safety.
Unfortunately, many of these gains have been eroded over the last 16 years under a BC Liberal government. The laws that are meant to protect working people became ineffective and under-resourced.
Along with economic and social policies that foster a low-wage economy, many working people find themselves in increasingly precarious situations.
The scales have been tipped against ordinary British Columbians just trying to get by.
The new BC NDP government has taken some encouraging steps to turn this trend around: lifting the minimum wage, increasing access to education and training, banning big money from politics and renewing the commitment to community partner agreements. These are all good signs that the era of government picking winners and losers has come to an end.
The BC Federation of Labour has been focused largely on the debate to increase the minimum wage above the poverty line. The Fight for $15 campaign gained strong public support over the years, and now the Fair Wages Commission is setting a timeline to reach a $15-per-hour minimum wage.
And while wages are a critical piece in the poverty puzzle, it is not the only area that needs attention.
There is a dire need to undo a decade and a half of weakened employment standards that fail to provide vulnerable workers with basic rights and protections.
We hear from working people every day. The office of the BC Federation of Labour has become a hotline for non-union workers looking for help to defend their rights, fearful of losing their jobs for speaking up.
When workers have been wronged, instead of receiving effective support and resources, they are told to download a “self-help kit” from the web to lodge their complaint. Random worksite inspections by the Employment Standards Branch have been eliminated. And staffing levels at the branch have been severely reduced, going from 151 officers in 2001 to a current total of 74 – that’s a 51% reduction.
As a result, the few rights still afforded to working people are nearly impossible to enforce.
We can’t build a strong and sustainable economy when working people are being left behind. These are the people who deliver the services you use every day; the people who open the doors and turn on the lights in businesses from Fort St. John to Maple Ridge to Nanaimo; the people who clean your shopping malls, sell you your groceries and care for your children.
In the year ahead, we must look to restore fairness for working people in B.C.
This includes the elimination of the “self-help kit” process so people don’t have to risk being further targeted or losing their jobs for raising a concern. It also means increased funding so the Employment Standards Branch can properly investigate complaints and strategically address common practices, like the misclassification of employees as independent contractors and the failure to pay overtime, that run afoul of the law. It includes eliminating child labour provisions that allow 12-year-olds to work, increasing the minimum call-out for shifts to four hours and introducing paid sick leave and leave for victims of domestic violence.
Strong employment standards laws and active enforcement of those laws are vital to protect working people, to ensure they are not taken advantage of. But they also benefit employers. When the rules are clear and administration is proactive, competition does not become a race to the bottom. We must remember that working people are partners in our economic success.
For the sake of families, businesses, communities and our economy, we must level the playing field. •
Irene Lanzinger is president of the BC Federation of Labour, which represents 500,000 working women and men in B.C.
