Updated: March 5, 2022, 11:00 A.M.
Vancouver, B.C.
Second to be appointed to administrative tribunals
Teodoro Alcuitas
Labour advocate Rene-John Nicolas has been appointed as Vice-chair of the Labour Relations Board, Rene-John comes to the Board from the British Columbia General Employees’ Union. Appointed for a term of four years, Nicolas’ appointment starts on April 2022.
He is the second Filipino-Canadian to be appointed to a provincial administrative board. Last December 2021, lawyer Luningning Alcuitas -Imperial was appointed chair of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal after a short tenure as Chair of the Mental Health Review Board.
Nicolas finished his Bachelor Arts (BA) from the University of Manitoba in 2009 and his law degree in 2012. Currently a Staff Representative – Advocacy Department of the BC Government Service Employees Union (BCEGEU, he is also a member of the Board Of Governors for Vancouver County College (VCC).
His community involvement include serving as Board of Directors for the Migrant Workers Centre and director for Kababayan Academic Mentorship Program (KAMP)Kababayan Academic Mentorship Program (KAMP) at Sir Charles Tupper secondary which he co-founded with his wife Maureen Mendoza and Michael Infante. KAMP KAMP is a community-led mentorship program that provides academic and social support to newly arrived Metro Vancouver Filipino-Canadian youth.
By providing mentorship and positive role models, KAMP aims to empower our community’s youth and provide them with the confidence they need to genuinely integrate and thrive in the Canadian public education system.
The eldest son of Renato and Remedios Nicolas from Minalin, Pampanga, Nicolas was first introduced to other Filipino organizations like Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada through the Kalayaan Centre. He credits conversations with a former director of the Centre which led him to take up law.
The BC Labour Relations Board works with employers, employees, and unions on matters related to employment and labour relations in unionized workplaces. The Board is an independent organization that has authority under the Labour Relations Code to decide applications and provide mediation services.The Labour Relations Board is an administrative tribunal whose job is to resolve issues that arise under the Labour Relations Code . This means it functions like a court, except that its processes are less formal than a court’s would be.
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