In some cases, public private partnerships can result in situations where local government employees may be displaced. The key concerns of many employees will be maintenance of seniority, pensions, wages, benefits and collective bargaining rights. These are all issues that must be dealt with carefully throughout the public private partnership process.
A carefully designed stakeholder and communications process whereby employees and affected labour unions are consulted on a regular basis can help to ease the transition. Poorly designed communications programs can result in resistance by employees and labour unions to service delivery through public private partnership arrangements.
In public private partnerships in other provinces, private sector partners have generally respected the terms and conditions of the existing collective bargaining agreement-either because it was stipulated in the contract with the local government or due to successor's rights. When employees can be guaranteed the same rights and opportunities as when they worked for the local government, the transition between local government provision of a service and service delivery by public private partnership can be eased.
The Labour Relations Code takes precedence over the Municipal Act for labour relation matters in BC. When a business or part of a business is sold, the employer must provide the employee with successor rights. These rights and obligations may apply when a local government shifts from traditional self-delivery of services to non-traditional delivery via a public private partnership. Local governments must be aware of the provisions in the Labour Relations Code that could impact them, their employees and a private sector partner in a public private partnership arrangement.