Union complains about management growth ahead of bargaining

Photo supplied/BCGEU via X

While Premier David Eby pledges efficiency reviews, the number of high-paid managers in the B.C. Public Service has grown almost twice as fast as the number of front-line union workers over the past decade. Management salaries have skyrocketed.

Since 2010, the number of front-line B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) workers has grown by 27.9 per cent, from 25,279 in 2010 to 32,323 in 2024, according to a chart provided by the union. Meanwhile, the number of union-excluded managers has grown by 51.9 per cent, from 4,957 in 2010 to 7,530 in 2024.

This disparity is most pronounced in recent years. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, the public service added $104.5 million in salaries for upper-management employees excluded from union membership.

With this background, Eby delivered cabinet ministers’ mandate letters on Thursday, calling for spending reviews.

“We don’t want to spend money on administration,” he said. “We want to spend money on front-line services that actually make a difference for British Columbians.”

Also underway is the renegotiation of public-service collective bargaining, which starts this week between the BCGEU and the province.

The old agreement expires March 31, and the union wants to take a good, hard look at this growth in non-union management, said BCGEU president Paul Finch.

“One of our key aims in bargaining is to change that dynamic,” he told BC Today.

The BCGEU and the government will meet in Victoria on Wednesday to put forward the first proposals to start this round of negotiations.

More managers making more money
Overall, B.C.’s public service is growing roughly in line with growth in the province’s population. The size of the public service is also about the same as the national average, when measured as civil servants per capita.

But public service growth has been uneven and top-heavy.

Between July 2023 and June 2024, the province added almost $153 million in salaries and 6.7 per cent more employees to the 9,985-person union-excluded employee group. More than two-thirds of those are classified as management — a sub-category into which 7.1 per cent more workers were added.

In that same time period, 5.1 per cent more workers and slightly less than $193 million in salaries were added to the 34,950-member union workforce.

The finance ministry would not comment on this growth disparity in response to emailed questions from BC Today. Instead, a spokesperson noted that the public service has grown overall and pointed to budget totals — though those are not divided into the excluded and union categories.

Hiring freeze underway
This management growth is happening while B.C.’s deficit has grown to a projected $9.4 billion.

Eby froze hiring for some management in the public service more than a month ago. His messaging has been vague, however.

The government provided guidance to the union in December to address concerns about how the freeze will work, but Finch said there are still questions.

“We’ve received some answers, but we actually never received full clarity on it,” Finch said.

The guidance document explains that the freeze has exceptions for critical, front-line workers and positions related to urgent government priorities. All job competitions underway before Dec. 11, 2024, will proceed, while those starting afterward will require ministry approval.

Unhappy with the last agreement
Much of this will impact the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations, as will the standard cost-of-living increases.

Finch said the last agreement didn’t quite overcome inflationary pressure. That agreement gave union members a 3.24-per-cent plus 25-cent-per-hour pay increase in 2022, between 5.5- and 6.75-per-cent raise in 2023 and between two- and three-per-cent pay bump in 2024.

It barely passed a union-member vote, receiving support from 53.4 per cent of the bargaining unit.

“The probability of job action or a dispute this round is very high,” Finch said.

After those last negotiations — which did result in job action that included a strike by liquor distribution workers — it took more than a year after the agreement was up for many employees to get retroactive pay.

Finch said he expects that this time the union will insist on a penalty being written into the agreement, to prevent similar issues from arising.

“What happened last round is completely unacceptable,” Finch said.

The union will also be looking for concessions beyond wages. Finch said the BCGEU wants to streamline the grievance process for minor disputes and to revamp the 40-year-old job evaluation plans that rank public service jobs.

The finance ministry would not reveal its position on this round of bargaining, other than to hint that the government’s financial position will come into play.

“Every bargaining mandate has to consider the province’s fiscal situation, overall economic conditions, and the need to support strong services for people,” a ministry spokesperson told BC Today.

Other BCGEU bargaining groups are also negotiating with the B.C. government later this year, including those representing health-science professionals, community social service employees and some post-secondary employees. Several other unions, including the Health Employees Union, will also be renegotiating this year.