Labour

Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Results

Overview

1. Laws, regulations and processes that promote productive and mutually beneficial relationships, awareness and satisfaction, and that enable compliance.
2. Timely and accurate case management and adjudication.
3. Innovative dispute resolution processes.
4. A corporate culture that supports a client-focused, results-oriented, innovative and knowledgeable team.

For each of its four goals, Labour has identified objectives to be achieved over the next three years. The goals state the overall intended results of the Service Plan, while the objectives translate these goals into more specific desired outputs and outcomes. The strategies describe the key initiatives that will be implemented in order to achieve the objectives.

Labour aligns to all of the Five Great Goals¹ because its policies and services affect every citizen and worker in the province, whether unionized or non-unionized. Of greatest relevance to Labour's mission is the Fifth Great Goal "create more jobs per capita than anywhere else in Canada".

A stable labour and employment relations environment is necessary for the effective implementation of all cross ministry initiatives. Accordingly, Labour supports all cross ministry initiatives through its efforts in promoting labour stability and mutually beneficial, healthy and safe working arrangements.

British Columbia continues to make regulatory reform a priority across government, making it easier for businesses to operate and succeed in British Columbia, while still preserving regulations that protect public health, safety and the environment. The Labour program and WorkSafeBC will continue to support government's regulatory reform initiative and review regulatory requirements to identify opportunities for further efficiencies.

To this end, Labour and WorkSafeBC will undertake reviews of specific regulations in order to streamline and improve their effectiveness, while maintaining the target of a zero per cent net increase in regulatory requirements through 2008/09.

Citizen-centred service delivery is a government-wide initiative to co-ordinate information, programs and services so that they can be presented to citizens in a way that takes their needs into account from beginning to end. The vision is to make it possible for citizens to access the government information and services they need in a simple and timely manner with a phone call, a mouse click or a visit to a service centre, no matter how many programs or ministries are involved in their request.

Central to the Ministry's 2007/08 – 2009/10 Service Plan is its commitment to citizen-centred service delivery. All the components of Labour's plan are aligned with this theme.

• The Ministry's vision is: British Columbia will be a leader in Canada and recognized internationally for excellence in citizen-centred service delivery;
• One of the Ministry's values is service excellence;
• Labour's four goals all align themselves to citizen-centred service delivery as they promote productive, mutually beneficial relationships, awareness, and satisfaction. The goals also seek to ensure timely and accurate case management, innovative dispute resolution process improvements, and a ministry team that is client-focused and results-oriented;
• Objectives related to these goals include enhanced client and stakeholder awareness and satisfaction as well as enhanced service orientation;
• Measures include the rate of satisfaction for services provided within selected service areas (the Employers' Advisers Office and the Workers' Advisers Office); and
• Strategies include being responsive to the needs of employees, unions and employers and to foster mutual co-operation between government, industry and employees. Also, a key strategy is ensuring that staff have the knowledge, skills and abilities to deliver all Labour's goals, including those that are specifically citizen-centred.

Performance Plan

This section presents the goals for Labour and outlines how specific objectives, strategies, performance measures and targets are helping to achieve them. The goals state the overall intended results of the Service Plan for Labour, and the objectives over the next three years are identified for each of its four goals. The strategies describe the key activities and initiatives that will be implemented in order to achieve the objectives.

Performance measures are identified for each of the goals. A summary description that explains how the measure links to the relevant goal and what is being measured is provided for each measure. A detailed description of the measures is provided in the Labour 2007/08 – 2009/10 Performance Measure Methodology Report at: http://www.labour.gov.bc.ca/pubs/related/overview.htm.

For each measure, three-year targets have been set. In all but one case, the targets seek to either maintain or improve current performance outcomes relative to internal benchmarks. In the exception (person-days lost due to strike/lockout activity in British Columbia relative to Canada as a whole), the target seeks to maintain or improve British Columbia's performance relative to an external benchmark that is comprised of Canada's overall person-days lost performance. Internal benchmarks are relied upon for the setting of targets because, in most cases, national standards do not exist. Ministry staff continue to work with their counterparts in other jurisdictions on performance measurement issues, and will incorporate into future service plans new or revised measures that are evaluated against national benchmarks as relevant data and information become available.

The Ministry is responsible for three major statutes that have a direct impact on the working lives of all British Columbians: the Employment Standards Act; the Labour Relations Code; and the Workers Compensation Act. As part of this responsibility, the Ministry is responsible for the regulatory framework within the employment standards and labour relations areas, and for administration, education and awareness, enforcement and adjudication through the activities of the Employment Standards Branch, the offices of the Workers' and Employers' Advisers, and the Executive. Three independent tribunals — the Labour Relations Board, the Employment Standards Tribunal, and the Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal — also fall within the Ministry's overall responsibility in the administration and enforcement of these statutes.

The premise of this goal is that prevention, early intervention and a service orientation in all of the Ministry's business areas are critical to the achievement of a labour and employment environment that is characterized by productive and mutually beneficial relationships and compliance.

• Continuing the dialogue between the Ministry and stakeholders in the labour community through new and existing channels so that critical labour relations issues are addressed in a timely, effective and mutually beneficial manner — a component of which is completing the transfer of Collective Bargaining Mediation Services to the Ministry in 2007/08;
• Ensuring that the principles of early intervention and prevention are applied to expiring collective agreements in 2007 including those in municipalities and the coastal forests industry, where necessary and appropriate;
• Establishing the Provincial Council on SafeBC to work on making British Columbia safe;
• Expanding pro-active educational initiatives that provide comprehensive information on employment standards, including continuation of work with industry and labour communities on educational and compliance initiatives;
• Continuing with initiatives to provide services in other languages;
• Developing new initiatives and continuing with existing initiatives aimed at maintaining and improving accessibility of Labour Relations Board services to all parties, and streamlining administrative requirements in order to be more responsive to the needs of employees, unions and employers; and
• Continuing with initiatives to provide direct workers' compensation assistance, guidance and service to workers and employers and to focus on ensuring the efficiency and responsiveness of the workers' compensation appeal system.

Percentage of employers whose employment practices resulted in no complaints being registered with the Employment Standards Branch.

This performance measure is an indicator of the level of compliance among British Columbia employers with the Employment Standards Act. The measure is derived from two sources: Employment Standards Branch data which shows the number of employers who are the subject of one or more employment standards complaints over the course of a fiscal year; and BC STATS data on the total number of business establishments with employees over the same period. The expectation is that the percentage of employers whose practices do not result in complaints being registered with the Branch will continue at their current very high levels, and that this will allow the Branch to continue to focus its compliance initiatives and activities on those sectors of the economy where vulnerable workers are most likely to be employed.

Person-days lost due to strike/lockout activity in British Columbia relative to Canada as a whole (Three-year moving average).

This measure is an indicator of the relative degree of labour peace and labour stability in British Columbia compared to Canada as a whole. The measure shows the number of person-days lost due to strikes and lockouts as a proportion of the British Columbia labour force, and compares this with the number of person-days lost across the entire country as a proportion of the Canadian labour force. A score of 1.0 suggests that the degree of labour stability in British Columbia is on par with Canada as a whole, with a score of less than 1.0 indicating relative labour stability (fewer days lost per capita) compared with the rest of Canada and a score of greater than 1.0 indicating relative labour instability.

Percentage of respondents satisfied or very satisfied with Employers' Advisers Office or Workers' Advisers Office services.

This measure demonstrates how satisfied clients are with the services provided by the Employers' Advisers Office and the Workers' Advisers Office. The measure is based on client satisfaction surveys.