FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
February 10, 2025 
 
BCGEU unsurprised by RCY report findings, calls for workload management tool  
 
Burnaby, B.C. (Coast Salish Territories) - Members of the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) are unsurprised by the report issued February 6, 2025, by British Columbia’s Representative for Children and Youth, and call for the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) to implement a workload management and measurement tool.

The report concludes what BCGEU members have been raising to the ministry for years, including in the union’s 2014 campaign, Choose Children – child welfare social workers in B.C. are in a state of crisis.

“Social workers are leaving a profession that they feel called to do but the ministry is doing nothing constructive about their crushing workload,” said Paul Finch, BCGEU president.

Like the RCY, the BCGEU is calling for committed efforts to fix the long-standing situation. 

“We acknowledge that some effort has been made to improve things – like increasing staffing levels – but more is needed to make a material difference,” said Finch. “Also, we’ve repeatedly requested that the ministry review its current incentives to recruit professionals into hard-to-place roles and even increase those incentives.” 

The BCGEU supports all the recommendations in the RCY’s latest report, especially the implementation of tools to better manage and measure workload and how it is distributed.

The BCGEU is also calling for a separate report from the RCY for Indigenous Child and Family Service Agencies (ICFSAs).

“It is essential that the voices of workers at delegated Indigenous agencies be included in discussions about social work caseload pressures, to ensure a thorough context around workload and help overcome inequalities in the social work field in Indigenous populations.” 

  
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Paul Finch, president of the BCGEU, will be available for media interviews via phone or Zoom. 
  
Contact: 
BCGEU Communications 
[email protected] 

UWU/MoveUP