Canadian Supreme Court ruling in BC hospital dispute A boost for the union bureaucracy

Adopted by BC’s Liberal government in 2002, “The Health and Social Services Delivery Act” tore up a collective agreement between the BC Health Employers Association and the Hospital Employees Union that was to expire in 2004 and imposed a new contract by legislative fiat. The new contract gutted restrictions on the contracting out of work and gave management broad new powers in determining working conditions. In the months following the law’s passage, some eight thousand hospital jobs were contracted out to private janitorial, laundry and catering companies.

In finding the BC law unconstitutional, the court stipulated that there was nothing wrong with the BC government seeking to reduce health care costs or engaging in “hard-bargaining.”

It also reaffirmed the prerogative of federal and provincial governments to impose collective agreements through legislation in “exceptional circumstances” and to strip workers of the right to strike.