The Community Social Services sector is designated as an essential service by the Labour Relations Code because the services provided are necessary or essential to prevent immediate and serious danger to the health, safety or welfare of the residents of British Columbia. For either party, employers or unions, to engage in job action, essential services levels are negotiated within Section 72 of the Labour Relations Code. Under Section 72, employers and unions must be able to exert maximum economic pressure on each other by preventing as many employees as possible from working (balanced by the employers’ legal obligation to maintain those services that are deemed essential), and by deploying excluded personnel as much as possible to perform the bargaining unit work vacated by employees.
The Essential Services database is now live. CSSEA developed the database so the sector can benefit from having a repository for all the essential services required forms.
The Essential Services database will have its own unique username and password, different from your CSSEA website username and password. Vangie Johnson, HRLR Administrative Assistant, will e-mail your organization’s database log-in details, as well your 2022 agreed-to essential services levels to your Executive Director/CEO and HR Director/Manager; that e-mail will arrive between February 25 and 28.
Members are encouraged to populate the database with their negotiated essential services levels from 2022 and then update them to create their 2025 levels. If a member did not participate in essential services negotiations in 2022 and no essential services levels exist, the member will populate the database to create their baseline 2025 levels.
Please be sure to read these two resources: backgrounder and instruction guide before populating the database.
Employers are highly encouraged to attend upcoming education sessions in early March to learn about essential services and the mandatory inputting of their essential service staffing levels into the Essential Services database. These sessions are open to leaders and managers who are excluded from the bargaining unit and will be completing the essential service staffing levels for their agency.
We recommend that both the backgrounder and instruction guide be read in preparation for the education sessions.
If you have any questions about the process, please contact your CSSEA Advocate/Consultant.