See the Ministry of Labour mandate letter.
In particular, the Premier has tasked the Minister as follows:
Over the course of our mandate, I expect you will make progress on the following items:
- Continue a collaborative approach in working with representatives of workers and employers to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people and businesses.
- Continue working with the federal government on a paid sick leave program to protect workers and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
- Create new consultative mechanisms to engage employer and worker representatives in consideration of any changes proposed to workplace legislation to ensure the widest possible support.
- Once the minimum wage reaches $15.20 per hour in June 2021, provide predictability for employers and workers by tying the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.
- Ensure that every worker has the right to join a union and bargain for fair working conditions.
- Increase the number of WorkSafeBC caseworkers and increase workplace safety inspections.
- In partnership with WorkSafeBC and with support from the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, work to develop better options for chronic work-related pain, including improving pain management practices for injured workers and providing treatment on demand to those with chronic pain as a result of workplace injuries.
- Support the work of the Minister of Advanced Education to restore the compulsory trades system to improve safety and give more workers a path to apprenticeship completion.
- Support the Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity’s work to close the gender pay gap by addressing systemic discrimination in the workplace and through new pay transparency legislation.
- Support the work of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries to continue improving working conditions for all workers including temporary foreign workers and temporary domestic workers working in farming communities.
- Support the Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development to guide the establishment of a new Worker Training and Job Opportunity Office to maximize the impact of our economic recovery plan for workers and communities during COVID-19 and beyond – with a focus on retraining workers, supporting resource communities facing job loss, developing higher value goods, and accessing new global markets and opportunities for B.C. products.