Meetings of the Coalition
The Coalition meets in-person at least six times a year, with teleconferencing for those members outside the Lower Mainland.

Decision-Making Process for the Coalition

A consensus decision-making model shall be used for decisions pertaining to the work of the Employment Standards for the Next Decade Coalition, with votes taken only when necessary.

• The need for upcoming decisions will be circulated in the agenda one week prior to the meeting at which the decision will be made.  These decisions shall not be re-opened at future meetings. However, members may ask for clarification of the decisions.
• Decisions made at meetings on topics that are added to the agenda after the circulation of the agenda may be re-opened for further discussion and/or decision.
• When necessary, decisions can be sought via email to the Coalition members. When Coalition members are canvassed on issues (with reasonable time lines), a reply from a third of coalition members will constitute a quorum, and a majority vote shall determine a decision.

Basis of Unity

The BC Employment Standards Coalition is a diverse Coalition of individuals and organizations working for the protection and advancement of the rights of workers in BC. Members include labour unions, workers’ groups, academics and policy experts, non-profit organizations, and more. We aim to include members from all sectors and industries and from across the province, as well as those with personal and/or professional expertise to improve and deepen our work. We further strive to ensure that people with lived experience of vulnerable or precarious work are at our Coalition table, and that we invite organizations to join the Coalition from those communities where low-wage and precarious employment is most acute. We also seek to recruit allies from a variety of different organizational backgrounds and perspectives. We undertake outreach to ensure that we have a diverse Coalition.

We recognize that our members come to their work from a variety of perspectives, and that the resources/capacity of member organizations vary greatly. We also recognize that, beyond the work of the Coalition, members employ a range of strategies –– some work closely with government, while others seek to push for policy change from outside government –- and we appreciate that our strength comes from this “inside/outside” diversity. We respect the various and different parameters, mandates, capacities and resources of the member groups.

Coming Together As Members

Coalition members come together, at meetings and in-between, in the spirit of collaboration and mutual learning. Coalition members respect each others’ perspectives and experiences through listening actively, giving and holding space for all members to share, doing our own learning to better understand experiences we don’t have, and asking questions with compassion.

If Coalition members represent an employer or organization at the Coalition, they will hold their employer/organizational viewpoint while remaining open to what other members share and ask of them within the Coalition.

Coming Together As a Coalition

This Basis of Unity presents the principles that Coalition members uphold and support when we come together to do our joint work. As a Coalition, we work to advance the protection and complete fulfillment of the rights of all workers, including but not limited to workers of all industries, sectors, and skills, and workers of all genders, sexualities, sexes, Indigeneity, races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, socioeconomic statuses, ages, and im/migration statuses. We work to centre the experiences of those workers most vulnerable to abuses at their workplaces, including discrimination, harassment, violence, stigmatization, criminalization, and deportation. The Coalition will remain non-partisan.

If a member has a concern that a coalition member is not upholding the above principles they should raise it as soon as possible with a Coalition Director, preferably in writing and with any supporting information available. Similarly, when the Coalition is creating campaigns or actions that external stakeholders could sign on to without being a member of the Coalition, Coalition members have the right to express concern if a stakeholder joins the campaign which is not in alignment with the broad goal of advancing and protecting all workers’ rights; in these cases, the member should also raise their concern as soon as possible with a Coalition Director, preferably in writing and with any supporting information available. In both cases, the Coalition Directors may take informal steps to address the matter as they deem appropriate, or may take formal action in accordance with the Bylaws.