Brief History

On March 6, 1992, the provincial government established the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service and Public Sector with mediator/arbitrator Judi Korbin as commissioner. The mandate of the commission was to:

  • examine the human resource practices of the public sector; and
  • propose a new framework of human resource management that allowed government to meet the public's demand for services within fiscal limitations.

Human resources, with specific emphasis on labour relations in the public education sector, were among the areas of inquiry and recommendation by the Commission. On July 9, 1993, the Final Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service and Public Sector was released, establishing the basis for legislation to change the structure of the public sector. Soon after, on July 27, the Public Sector Employers Act (PSEA) was passed, establishing the Public Sector Employers' Council (PSEC) and employers' associations in six sectors of the public sector:

  • health
  • K-12 public education
  • social services
  • colleges and institutes
  • universities
  • crown corporations, agencies and commissions. 

The Public Sector Employers Act established the following mandate for the associations:

The purposes of an employers' association are to coordinate the following with respect to a sector:

  • compensation for employees who are not subject to collective agreements;
  • benefits administration;
  • human resource practices;
  • collective bargaining objectives.

In addition, it is a purpose of an employers' association

  • to foster consultation between the association and representatives of employees in the sector, and
  • to assist the council in carrying out any objectives and strategic directions established by the council for the employers' association.

As a result, BC's K-12 sector changed significantly. In May 1994, BCPSEA was formed. On June 7, the Public Education Labour Relations Act (PELRA) was passed, which established BCPSEA as the accredited bargaining agent for all school boards and the BCTF as the certified bargaining agent for all public school teachers in the province. PELRA also established, in general, the scope of teacher bargaining, with all cost provisions to be negotiated at the provincial level. Cost provisions were defined as:

In subsection (3), "cost provisions" includes provisions relating to:

  • salaries and benefits,
  • workload, including, without limitation, class size restrictions, and
  • time worked and paid leave that affect the cost of the collective agreement.

From May through August of 1994, the BCPSEA Constitution and Bylaws were developed in accordance with the provisions of PELRA.

In September 1996, a question arose as to whether the BCPSEA's accreditation also covered support staff. On July 29, 1998, the Public Education Labour Relations Act was amended to affirm BCPSEA's accreditation status relating to support staff.

BCPSEA now operates as a full service employers' association for the K-12 sector.