Course

Labour Relations

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Business Law
Course code
BLAW 3760
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 weeks
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Course designation
None
Industry designation
CPHR
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course is an introduction to the Canadian industrial relations system, including: the historical development of trade unions; the structure, organization and operation of unions; public policy covering labour and employment relations; union certification; collective bargaining; contract administration; dispute resolution; and contemporary issues in labour relations. Students who have already received credit for BUSN 3760 will not get further credit for this course.
Course content
  1. Origins and history of Canada's labour movement
    1. International unions
    2. Craft and industrial unions
    3. The Winnipeg general strike
    4. Socio-political forces affecting the growth and support for unions
    5. The Great Depression, war and post-war labour-management conflict
  2. Structure of unions
    1. The union local, national and international structures
    2. Labour councils and federations
    3. The Canadian Labour Congress
    4. Unions and union membership in Canada
  3. Labour legislation and public policy
    1. B.C. Labour Relations Code and guide
    2. Employment Standards Act
    3. Impact of Human Rights legislation
    4. Recent changes to legislation
  4. Collective bargaining rights
    1. Reasons employees join unions
    2. The certification process
    3. Collective bargaining
    4. Contract administration
    5. Grievances
    6. Arbitration
    7. Conciliation
    8. Mediation
    9. Strikes and lockouts
  5. Contemporary issues
    1. The future of Industrial Relations: unionism vs. managerialism
Learning activities

Methods will include lectures, seminars, text and reading assignments, role-playing and/or classroom discussion.  Guest speakers and audio-visual materials will be used where appropriate.  All students will participate in a collective bargaining simulation.

Means of assessment
Midterm Examination   20-30%
Final Examination   30%
Simulation   10-20%
Participation and/or assignments and/or quizzes   10%
Case Study (Individual Paper)   20%
   100%

                                                                                                                                                                     

NOTE: students must achieve a grade of at least 50% on the combined examination components to pass the course.

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course, successful students will be able to:

  • demonstrate knowledge of the purpose and history of trade unions in Canada;
  • identify the current structures, organization and operations of unions;
  • explain public policy and legislation covering labour and employment relations;
  • analyze the processes of union certification, collective bargaining, and the administration of collective agreements;
  • identify effective negotiating approaches for resolving conflict and apply this knowledge by role-playing in a collective bargaining simulation; and
  • recognize contemporary issues in labour relations.
Textbook materials

Suffield, Larry, G. Ganon, Labour Relations. Latest edition, (Toronto: Pearson Education Canada), or

Other textbook(s) approved by the Business Law Department, and

Additional cases and/or readings as per the Instructor's discretion. 

Requisites

Prerequisites

Courses listed here must be completed prior to this course:

  • No prerequisite courses

Corequisites

Courses listed here must be completed either prior to or simultaneously with this course:

  • No corequisite courses

Equivalencies

BUSN 3760

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for BLAW 3760
Athabasca University (AU) AU IDRL 215 (3)
Capilano University (CAPU) CAPU BADM 3XX (3)
College of the Rockies (COTR) COTR MGMT 3XX (3)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU BUSI 2360 (3)
Langara College (LANG) LANG BUSM 2XXX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU BUS 2XX (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU HRMN 3840 (3)
University Canada West (UCW) UCW BUSI 3XX (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV COMM_V 2nd (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC COMM 3XX (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV BUS 305 (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC COM 420 (1.5)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
35
Remaining seats:
0
On waitlist
4
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
708
Times:
Start Time
12:30
-
End Time
15:20
CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
35
Remaining seats:
0
On waitlist
10
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
626
Times:
Start Time
18:30
-
End Time
21:20