BCLI releases Report on the Employment Standards Act
December 10, 2018
BY Greg Blue
BCLI has released its Report on the Employment Standards Act. The 300-page report contains 71 recommendations for changes to the Act to address contemporary and evolving circumstances in the 21st-century workplace. The Employment Standards Act applies to the majority of employees in BC. It sets minimum standards for most aspects of employment relationships except occupational health and safety and collective bargaining.
The report was preceded by a consultation paper that BCLI issued in mid-2018 to gather public comment on reform proposals. The input received was compiled and reviewed in arriving at the recommendations embodied in the report.
The report is the final publication in connection with BCLI’s Employment Standards Act Reform Project, which began in 2014 and is the first comprehensive, independent review of the Act since the early 1990’s. The project had broad-based support from labour and business organizations, the Law Foundation of BC, and the Ministry of Labour. BCLI carried out the project with the aid of an all-volunteer, expert Project Committee chaired by Tom Beasley. Members of the Project Committee were selected for balanced representation of worker and employer viewpoints.
