Employee Relations Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

This is a great opportunity to exercise your Labour and Employee Relations experience to hit the ground running with a voice in negotiations in collective agreements within the Marine Industry in BC.

British Columbia has one of the most active unionized labour environments in Canada, with a long history of collective bargaining and high grievance activity. Our client has benefited from over a decade of labour peace with their unionized workforce. On behalf of our client we are seeking a net new position to move forward with Employee Relations (ER)  Specialist.

Urgency to Hire :

While the HR Manager and Operations Manager support some of these functions, the current arrangement is stretching their resources too thin. The burden of managing Employee Relations at this time is significant enough to render a net new position and Specialist particularly with collective negotiations starting in September for some of their union agreements. ( 2 in September see below for details )

Hitting the ground running -the current ER responsibilities will include— grievance management, arbitration preparation, and collective agreement interpretation—handed off from the Director of Operations.

Must Haves :

2 to 4 years of experience in labour and employee relations within a unionized environment . Particularly Marine / Rail ideal fit. Total work experience 5 years+

Must have knowledge of the Canada Shipping Act and Associated Regulations (this is preferred a lot of the norms that apply to maritime-for example-full medicals required, transport CND vetted, the CND Shipping Act directs employment contracts)

Previous experience with Maritimes Industry Standards and / regulatory compliance in Federally regulated companies within Canada. Has experience with Canada Labour Code

Degree in Business, HR, LR or related or equivalent combo experience

Good presentation abilities, confidence, highly articulate, captivating personality. Ability to deal with personalities of all types with regards to union members and all stakeholders involved in negotiations

Previous experience in Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA)

Ability to Travel- the initial 2 Collective Agreements will be related to Prince Rupert and there will be travel expected during this period. Mainly the travel is typically to Prince Rupert and annually expected 4-6x per year. Car allowance or mileage will be included. Waiting on the official offering here and will update-do not advertise.

Union- 150 total members in BC. Vancouver 78, Port McNeil 4, Prince Rupert 38. Mainly crew members.  Operate Tug Boats.

Non Union -Technical team aren’t in the union 15-20 but they have another type of agreement. About 40 are salaried and not union.