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Under the unassuming title – Bill 9, Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 – the BC government has introduced a set of small but significant changes (the “Amendment”) to the BC Labour Relations Code (the “Code”). Specifically, it has amended the definition of “strike” and “person” under the Code so that, as explained in the information bulletin published on March 11, 2024:
…when employees under federal jurisdiction or that of another province are on strike, locked out, and establish a picket line in B.C., provincially regulated workers can choose to respect the picket lines without it being considered illegal strike action.
In simple terms, the Amendment means that provincially regulated unionized employees can now legally refuse to cross federal and other non-BC provincial pickets (i.e. picket lines related to a work stoppage in a federally regulated sector or another province).
Read the latest article by Andrew Nicholl for further insight into this important update and the key takeaways for employers.