MEDIA RELEASE

May 21, 2025

LifeLabs workers have new collective agreement 

BURNABY, B.C. (Coast Salish Territories) – After 14 months of negotiations and 10 weeks on strike, mediator Mark Brown has given his binding recommendations for a settlement with the employer that will make up LifeLabs workers' new collective agreement, now in effect until March 31, 2027.

“LifeLabs workers have improved their collective agreement following mediation that imposed binding recommendations on their employer,” said Paul Finch, BCGEU president. “We thank Mark Brown for his work in helping to reach a resolution, however Quest and LifeLabs’ inability to reach an agreement at the bargaining table clearly reflects their prioritization of profit over the well-being of workers and patients. This underscores the need to transition B.C.’s diagnostic services into the public system.”

Workers won wage increases ranging from 11.3 to 20 per cent over three years. This puts them at parity in the second year of the new contract with the current wages of their counterparts in the public sector. Critical changes to address workload and overtime issues were also won, while concessions LifeLabs wanted workers to take for sick pay were taken off the table.

“LifeLabs workers stood strong for 10 weeks with public support from across the province in this fight for a fair deal and sustainable services,” said Mandy De Fields, Medical Laboratory Technologist and Chair of the Bargaining Committee. “During mediation at the end of April, we decided that accepting the mediator’s proposal would get us the best possible deal from a very difficult employer.”

This dispute has brought LifeLabs’ new American ownership and concerns about B.C.’s public health dollars going towards U.S. corporate profits into the spotlight. Government’s own study of B.C.’s privatized diagnostic services, commissioned by the BC NDP in 1993, found the system to have high per capita costs for services and a lack of oversight around access and quality. [1] The report made 44 recommendations to strengthen the public delivery of diagnostic services in B.C.

“Thirty years after the Kilshaw Report called for reform, our province continues to fund for-profit diagnostic services – paying LifeLabs $300 million a year – while workers are forced onto picket lines to fight for fair wages and better patient care,” said Finch. “It’s time to revisit this report, and for government to commission a new study into B.C.’s health system to assess health care delivery from an economic perspective, as well as what’s in the best interest of patients and workers.”

The BCGEU represents about 1,200 workers at LifeLabs throughout the province. Following mediation in April, the parties agreed to accept binding recommendations and signed a return-to-work agreement on April 25, 2025. Workers returned to work on April 26, 2025, and the binding recommendations were delivered May 14, 2025. The renewal agreement is now in effect April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2027.

The BCGEU is one of the largest unions in British Columbia, with over 95,000 members in almost every community and economic sector.

For more information contact Bronwen Barnett, BCGEU Communications at [email protected] 

[1] Review of Diagnostic Services, 1993, Miles Kilshaw, et al. 

UWU/MoveUP