British Columbia has a unique structure established to coordinate and manage labour relations and human resources in the broad public sector. Since 1993, the BC public sector has been influenced by the Public Sector Employers’ Act with the purposes:
The structure and systems under the legislation include the establishment of the Public Sector Employers’ Council (PSEC) and employers’ associations for each sector. The employers’ associations are the primary link between government and the member employers, with a goal designed to ensure that all interests are considered and best practices established. Employers’ associations can provide expertise in labour relations to both employers and government, linked to the provision of services in a particular sector. They aid employers in their capacity to manage their human resource and labour relations interests between bargaining events as well as to provide expertise in analyzing labour relations implications of policy and program decisions to government.
The Crown Corporations sector is unique within the public sector. There is no other sector with the diverse range of services and operational realities, from large commercial crowns to smaller service delivery and advisory crowns. There is a wide diversity of scale, industry focus and commercial mission of the various members of CCEA.
Within this diversity, there are also shared interests, opening the door to a common dialogue and collaboration among crowns on numerous key issues such as collective bargaining, executive and exempt compensation, progressive and responsive human resource practices. CCEA acts as a resource to crown corporations, as key source of information from PSEC and to facilitate collaboration among members on policy issues, guidelines, strategic considerations and other matters that add value to the members in managing their human resources and labour relations.