Weekly distribution:
- Lecture: 3 Hours
- Seminar: 1 Hour
- Total: 4 Hours
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.
- Origins and history of Canada's labour movement
- International unions
- Craft and industrial unions
- The Winnipeg general strike
- Socio-political forces affecting the growth and support for unions
- The Great Depression, war and post-war labour-management conflict
- Structure of unions
- The union local, national and international structures
- Labour councils and federations
- The Canadian Labour Congress
- Unions and union membership in Canada
- Labour legislation and public policy
- B.C. Labour Relations Code and guide
- Employment Standards Act
- Impact of Human Rights legislation
- Recent changes to legislation
- Collective bargaining rights
- Reasons employees join unions
- The certification process
- Collective bargaining
- Contract administration
- Grievances
- Arbitration
- Conciliation
- Mediation
- Strikes and lockouts
- Contemporary issues
- The future of Industrial Relations: unionism vs. managerialism
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.
| 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.
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.
Courses listed here must be completed prior to this course:
- No prerequisite courses
Courses listed here must be completed either prior to or simultaneously with this course:
- No corequisite courses
Nil