Colleagues, Last week marked the one-year anniversary of our principled day of job action in response to Bill 5. You may recall that our job action coincided with lengthy House debates on the bill, which the government initially shelved and then (surprise!) brought on for second reading at the end of …

2023-08-11 LT S. Barrett re Application to Strike 2023-08-21 Letter to D. Jordan re Motion to Strike 2023-09-01 LT K. Mercer(6378360.1) 2023-09-11 Letter to D. Jordan re. Jurisdiction 2023-09-13 LT K. Mercer re jurisdiction 2023-10-02 Letter to D. Jordan re. Forum for Bill 5 Challenge 2023-11-02 LT K. Mercer re …

Hi team, You will have all seen Julie’s message passing on praise from the AG during estimates debates earlier this week. Words are cheap, and cheapened further when you read the context in which the statement was made. My cynical interpretation of the exchange (which starts between 5:50 and 5:55 …

***Updated*** We received the below Response from the Employer attaching a WorkSafeBC Inspection Report and Orders 7622 – DMP-DAG Response 20240223 7622 – Attachment – Inspection Report Feb 8, 2024 Dear members, Today we delivered two letters to the Deputy Premier and Deputy Attorney General advocating for action to address …

Hi members, We have a number of updates to report. 1. Litigation Our lawyers filed an amended notice of civil claim earlier this month, which addressed the government’s threatened strike application. The amendments are not substantive, but they do streamline our pleading and attempt to remove anything that could be characterized as …

Colleagues and friends, There is much to report today. I’ll start with the good news, then share an opportunity to be impactful, and close with some not so good news that will hopefully, at least, be motivating. Good news:Mark your calendars – Monday, February 12 at 4:15 for our distinguished …

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend our BCGLA AGM last Thursday, Dec 7. One of the agenda items at the AGM was the election of Directors. Two members expressed interest in becoming directors and two current directors expressed a willingness to step aside to make space …

Good day, BCGLA members! Last week, the Public Service Agency communicated the following to the BCGLA regarding dues. Further to you providing the resolution advising that the GLA membership dues are reduced, the Employer has taken the steps to stop collecting dues effective on the next pay period, December 8, …

Those of you who are PEA members will have received the below message from the union, postponing the GLP AGM scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. The message may have left you scratching your heads, and wondering what the motive was and who was to blame? I feel compelled to provide a …

Attached is my exchange with Julie Williams A/ADAG in response to the discipline letter put on my file for participating in the Day of Principled Job Action on May 8, 2023. End result, she forwarded my request to correct my personal information under s. 29 of FOIPPA to the Ministry …

Hi all, This email will serve as a brief, multimatter update on issues affecting BCGLA members.   1. GLP Elections   Congratulations to Rowan Hodge, Elizabeth Rowbotham K.C., and Micah Weintraub on being elected to the Government Licenced Professionals (GLP) board of the PEA! Government lawyers now hold 3 of 7 …

Dear members, You should have seen the exciting, if unsurprising, news that our BCGLA president Gareth Morley, KC has been appointed to the BC Supreme Court. Congratulations and much deserved, Gareth! Under our association bylaws, when the president is absent, the vice president acts as president.  Please join us in …

Dear members, I write because of the message sent by Julie at 4:30 pm today respecting union dues. In short, one effect of Bill 5 coming into force was that all non-excluded legal counsel employed by government are automatically required to pay 1 percent of our salary to the PEA, …

Dear Colleagues, Bill 5 has been in force less than a week, but a lot has already happened. If the government thought we would go more gently into that good night than Dylan Thomas’ irascible dad, they were mistaken. Constitutional Challenge Filed We filed our Notice of Civil Claim yesterday. …

Dear Colleagues, Bill 5 was brought into force at 12:01 am today. As a result, most Legal Counsel, except for Legislative Counsel, are now in the PEA. You will have received messaging from both the PSA and the PEA this morning. Messaging from the PSA You will have received an …

Dear Colleagues, This morning, Order in Council 435/2023 was deposited. It has the effect of bringing Bill 5 into force on July 14 (this Friday). Naturally, arguments based in the basic democratic principle that workers should choose their unions proved unavailing with this government. Its rejection of freedom of association …

Dear Colleagues, I am writing to you because you are Legislative Counsel who signed cards for the BCGLA. I should say that in doing so you are in the overwhelming majority of your colleagues, since the percentage signing in OLC was well above the approximately 70% of Legal Counsel altogether. …

For those of you who missed it, here’s the slide deck Exclusions – Powerpoint – Lunch and Learn

This survey is now closed, thank you for your participation. View results at: https://www.bcgla.ca/results/

In its “UPDATED Frequently Asked Questions about Bill 5″ document, the government makes the following representation: … 3. New: When will Bill 5 come into force and what impact will that have for government lawyers’ terms and conditions of employment? It is up to Cabinet to decide when Bill 5 …

Privileged and Confidential Transcript of the Q&A Privileged and Confidential Chat from the Q&A

Dear Colleagues, Thursday afternoon, you will have received an email from management entitled “Use of government email”. In the case of Legal Services Branch, it was sent by Julie Williams, the Acting ADAG, and that is the one I received, so it is the one I will refer to. However, …

Dear Colleagues, The Employer is not happy. This is understandable because their only strategy to defeat our certification campaign – the now-notorious Bill 5 – has received nothing but negative publicity. Vaughn Palmer has a column, unfortunately behind the Sun’s paywall: https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vaughn-palmer-bc-ndp-in-for-a-showdown-with-government-lawyers-attempting-to-unionize. Since persuasion is not going to work, the Employer is …

Dear Colleagues, I am writing to let you know that today I was given notice that the government intends to bring Bill 5 forward for Second Reading, Committee of the Whole and Third Reading imminently – either on Thursday, May 4 or Monday, May 8. The effect of this Bill …

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Dear Colleagues, A lot happened today. First, Don Jordan submitted an argument to the Board on behalf of the Employer and the AG.  Of considerable interest to me was para 123, where the Employer essentially admits that if the Labour Relations Code applies, then of course we would be certified. …

Dear Colleagues, The Executive has decided to call an extraordinary general meeting because we appear to be at a crisis point, and we may not have much time to act. The Government appears to be contemplating legislation that, so far as I know, is unprecedented in Canadian labour history: using …

Dear Colleagues, I am excited to inform you that we filed our submissions with the Board on Friday afternoon. They are available here. For that tiny minority that might find 856 pages a bit daunting, most of that consists in exhibits – the actual submission is a mere 60 pages. …

Dear Colleagues, A quick update because a lot has happened since our Annual General Meeting last Monday. For those who weren’t there, the meeting passed two important resolutions. One is to demand from the government that it introduce legislation to recognize us as a bargaining agent. The second instructed the …

Dear colleagues, Last week we got our story out and we got a concession from the Premier. This week we took action by filing an application for certification with the Labour Relations Board: 2022-001618R Notice to Employees (November 29, 2022) Certification Process Poster A preliminary hearing is set for Monday …

“We wrote the legislation that made joining a union easier for everyone in B.C., but we’re excluded. We just want the government to treat its own employees the way it requires other employers to do.” — Gareth Morley, BC Government Lawyers Association Victoria, B.C. (November 21, 2022): The irony was …

Dear Colleagues, The week after Labour Day is the real New Year for many of us. As those of us with school-aged children get them back to school and as all of us come to grips with the end of the summer and the demands of the fall season, it …

In November 2020, we summarized the dollar effect of the government’s decision to de-link our salaries from Crown Counsel salaries provided under their collective agreement. The de-linkage ended a decades-long practice of pay equity between government civil and criminal lawyers. You can view that post here. Enquiries from some of …

At the EGM on April 22, 96% of you voted to create a Job Action and Organizing Committee with the intent to study steps to challenge the government’s refusal to collectively bargain with the Association. We have set up that Committee and engaged in a lot of hard work. I …

Voting on the resolution closed and the results have now been posted to the Association website here. A clear majority of members voted and the resolution passed with resounding support! If you’re interested in joining the committee or volunteering for committee initiatives, please contact a board member.  

Dear Colleagues, I am writing to ask you to try to save April 22 between 12:30 and 1:30 pm for a special general meeting on the subject of the BC Government Lawyer’s Association’s response to Treasury Board Order 2022-0401-02. The Board will be sponsoring a resolution for debate. The impasse …

On October 14, 2021, we wrote to Ministers Robinson (PSA) and Eby (AG) about how Treasury Board Order No. 2020-0603 represented a fundamental change in terms and conditions of employment of Legal Counsel . With the Treasury Board order expiring March 31, 2022, we advocated for replacing it with a …

You can access 2021 meeting material, including the President’s report here. Your 2021/2022 Executive: Gareth Morley – President – [email protected] Tara Callan – Vice President – [email protected] Melanie Murray – Treasurer – [email protected] Margo Foster – Secretary – [email protected] Mark Witten  – Membership Director – [email protected] Micah Weintraub – Past Executive – …

Colleagues, I wanted to update you about what the Association is doing about (1) the related issues of the 4th wave of the COVID epidemic and the return to the office and (2) security against dismissal without cause. Return to Office As we all know, the policy of the government …

Dear Members, We write to provide an update on discussions with management respecting office allocation. We received feedback from a substantial number of you. Thank you to those of you who took the time to share your thoughts and experiences. We summarized the feedback we received in the attached document, …

Dear Colleagues, It has been awhile since we have been in touch, so the executive wanted to provide our members with an update regarding our quest for bargaining status. As you know, we have been suing the government seeking recognition of our bargaining rights. Most civil government lawyers across the …

As a result of Treasury Board Order No. 2020-0603, Fiscal Year 2019/2020 was the last year in which there was pay equity between civil and criminal lawyers working in the BC Public Service. Effective April 1, 2019, both Crown and Civil lawyers received a 1.51% pay increase. This was consistent …

Hosted online, this year’s AGM was our most well attended yet! You can access 2020 meeting material here. Your 2020 Executive: Gareth Morley – President – [email protected] Mark Witten – Vice President – [email protected] Melanie Murray – Treasurer – [email protected] Pamela Manhas – Secretary – [email protected] Micah Weintraub – Membership …

Dear Colleagues, We got big news last Friday. Some of it was clearly good. Thanks to our pressure, we received salary increases of 1.51% for Fiscal Year 2019-20, 2% for Fiscal Year 2020-21 and 2% for Fiscal Year 2021-22. We are no longer the only public servants who have not …

After serving 12 years as BCGLA president, Sandra Wilkinson has been appointed as a Justice of the BC Supreme Court. Our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Justice Wilkinson. Read the Government of Canada press release here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2020/05/government-of-canada-announces-a-judicial-appointment-in-the-province-of-british-colombia.html  

It is bittersweet news for the BCGLA. Our Vice President, Matthew Taylor has been appointed to the BC Supreme Court. Congratulations Justice Taylor – We wish you well and thank you for your leadership! Read Justice Taylor’s Government of Canada bio here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2020/03/government-of-canada-announces-judicial-appointments-in-the-province-of-british-columbia.html

At the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) in Ottawa on February 19, 2020, the CBA resolved to: “urge federal, provincial and territorial governments to affirm the distinct work of public sector lawyers by maintaining an appropriate complement of public sector lawyers necessary to support good governance …

2019 / 20 Board of Directors and Executive Announced At the October 22, 2019  AGM a new Board member was appointed and your Board has appointed this year’s executive as follows: Board of Directors:  Margo Foster, Gareth Morley,  and Melanie Murray (Victoria) and Matthew Taylor, Micah Weintraub (Vancouver) Executive:  President: Gareth Morley, …

Please note: If not already a member, this is a two step process 1) Fill out an application form BCGLA Application for membership Send completed form to: British Columbia Government Lawyers Association Attention: Micah Weintraub, Membership Director (604) 660-5126 1301-865 Hornby Street Vancouver, BC  V6Z 2G3 2) Register online: Here

The BCGLA was incorporated in 1992 under the Society Act of British Columbia as the LSB Lawyers Association. Our name changed to the British Columbia Government Lawyers Association at the end of 2017.  We are now governed by the Societies Act.  We are a voluntary association which represents member interests.  …

This BCGLA website has public access content (what you see now) and members only access content (LOG IN at the top right hand corner of the page). The Member Access Section provides a one-stop centre for salary information, benefits and other terms and conditions of employment. It also has access …