Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 19:08:47 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [KCUTS] Major victory - Bill 29 unconstitutional
From: meadow@netidea.com
Supreme Court strikes down Bill 29 provisions in landmark ruling:
http://www.heu.org/News/2007/06/NewsRelease6392/index.cfm?call2=HOMEPAGE&type=1
NEWSFLASH!!! COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROTECTED BY CHARTER, SUPREME COURT RULES
In a stunning reversal of 20 years of its own jurisprudence, the Supreme
Court of Canada has ruled (6-1) that the guarantee of freedom of association
in section 2(d) of the Charter of Rights protects the right of Canadian
workers to bargain collectively. Collective bargaining is a fundamental
aspect of Canadian society, the Court declared, and recognition of that
right reaffirms the values of dignity, personal autonomy, equality and
democracy that are inherent in the Charter.
As a result, the Court declared several provisions of B.C.'s Health and
Social Services Delivery Improvement Act to be unconstitutional, although it
suspended its declaration for a period of 12 months to allow the B.C.
government to address the repercussions of its decision. Enacted by the
Liberal government of Premier Gordon Campbell in 2002, the legislation
purported to override collective agreement protections for hospital workers
in the areas of contracting out, and layoff and bumping rights. Following
passage of the legislation, thousands of non-clinical support staff were
laid off from B.C. hospitals, and paid substantially less by service
providers to perform the same services at the hospitals from which they had
been laid off.
In the Court's view, a number of provisions in the B.C. Act (sections 6(2),
6(4) and 9), which were challenged by trade unions, were in violation of
section 2(d) of the Charter, and were not permitted by section 1, which
allows reasonable limits on Charter rights. It was not shown that they
minimally impaired the employees' right to collective bargaining: there was
no consideration by the government of less intrusive measures, and the
legislation was adopted rapidly with full knowledge that the unions were
strongly opposed to many of the provisions, without consideration of
alternative ways to achieve the government's objective, and without
explanation of the government's choices.
A full review of the Supreme Court's decision will be available on our
website www.lancasterhouse.com on Monday, June 11.
Full text of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in the Health Services
case: http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2007/2007scc27/2007scc27.html
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