Brace yourself B.C….
Here come Alberta labour laws
B.C. slashes minimum wage for new workers

By Jim Selby, AFL Staff

The new Liberal government in B.C. has wasted no time in putting the bite on workers. Under the laughable guise of helping youth find work, Premier Gordon Campbell has created a new lower minimum wage category that will allow employers to pay new workers $6.00 per hour instead of the regular $8.00 per hour minimum wage.

This new lower wage will apply to the first 500 hours of employment. Unsurprisingly, B.C. students and youth did not respond warmly to a $2.00 per hour wage cut. The B.C. Federation of Labour, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, and the College Institute Educators’ Association joined students in their condemnation of the move.

Opponents pointed out that thousands of workers had just had wage cuts that went straight into employers pockets. Furthermore, the obvious problem of employers getting rid of established workers to bring in cheaper new workers was not even considered by the government. How "creating" youth jobs by forcing experienced people out of work is going to benefit anybody but bosses is something the government hasn’t tried to explain.

The Alberta minimum wage for everyone is $5.90 per hour.

More Bad News for B.C.

In another ominous move for workers, the B.C. government has released a consultation paper on employment standards legislation in B.C. The "options’ for the public to consider include removing protection from higher wage earners, allowing collective agreements to undercut minimum standards, allow more exclusions by broadening the definition of management, allowing individual workers to "agree" to less than minimum standards, and allowing the Minister to allow variances from minimum standards without employee consent.

There are proposals to remove the eight hour day standard and to undermine protection against arbitrary firing.

"Most of the options in this review are designed to bring third world working conditions to British Columbia," said B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair.

The comparisons the B.C. government study uses are, unsurprisingly, Ontario and Alberta (shame on us), and Washington and California in the U.S.