Philippine Asian News Today Vol 20 No 21 | Page 12

BUSINESS NEWS
12
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY November 1 - 15, 2018
Repeal of
discriminatory
health labour
laws to help
restore
fairness,
stability to
health care,
says HEU
Bill 29 led to the firing of thou-
sands of health care workers and mass
privatization of health care services
The 49,000-member Hospi-
tal Employees’ Union is welcoming
the B.C. government’s move to re-
peal Gordon Campbell-era laws that
stripped health care workers’ collec-
tive agreements of job security provi-
sions and excluded them from the full
protection of provincial labour laws.
As a result, thousands of health
care workers – mostly women – were
fired as health authorities contracted
out hospital cleaning, food services,
laundry and other support services.
Thousands more were laid off
by nursing home operators who sub-
contracted care and support staff
– and flipped those contracts – in a
bid to keep wages low and bust union
collective agreements.
“Fragmentation of health care
delivery, the disruption of care rela-
tionships, and more precarious and
lower paid work is the direct result of
these mean-spirited laws,” says HEU
secretary-business manager Jennifer
Whiteside.
“Repealing these laws is a giant
step towards restoring justice and fair-
ness for health care workers and re-
pairing the damage that’s been done
to health care delivery.”
Bill 29 – the Health and Social
Services Delivery Improvement Act
– was rammed through the legisla-
ture, without notice, one weekend in
January 2002, despite a pre-election
promise by former premier Gordon
Campbell that he would not tear up
health care contracts.
Similar legislation adopted in
2003, the Health Sector Partnerships
Agreement Act (Bill 94), gave care
home operators and their subcon-
tractors the ability to sidestep key pro-
visions of the labour code, and avoid
restrictions on their ability to contract
out care and support services.
In 2007, the Supreme Court of
Canada ruled that the provisions of
Bill 29, including those that nullified
job security protections against con-
tracting out were unconstitutional,
and in doing so established collec-
tive bargaining as a charter-protected
right for all workers.
By that time, nearly 10,000
workers had been fired as a result of
the law. The vast majority of those im-
pacted were women. And racialized
women were disproportionately af-
fected by the legislation.
In 2008, the B.C. government
rescinded provisions of Bill 29 and
Bill 94 that had been ruled unconsti-
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tutional. But both laws continued to
exclude health care workers from key
provisions of the B.C. Labour Rela-
tions Code, including successor rights
and common employer declarations.
Bill 47 – the Health Sector Stat-
utes Repeal Act – repeals both bills,
effective early next year, and will be
implemented through regulation after
consultation with sector stakehold-
ers.