HSPBA: The Profile-Based Classification System

Health science professionals working under the HSPBA collective agreement will be moving to the new profile-based classification system by December 6, 2024, as part of the first major change to the classification system for health science professionals since 1988. 

Why Are We Doing This?

Over 18,000 HSA members work as health science professionals in over seventy different professions. The work is complex, and it’s getting more so with each passing year. For many health science professionals, the previous classification system did not kept pace with the change in their work.

For over twenty years, previous governments refused to modernize the classification system, but during bargaining the 2022-2025 HSPBA collective agreement, HSA and the employer struck an agreement to complete the design and implementation of the new profile-based classification system.

Improvements in the new profile-based classification system recognize advanced practice work and supervisory/leadership work in the same manner for every profession, resulting in a fair and equitable system for all health science professions.

What’s Happened So Far?

In April 2022, Grade I/Staff level jobs started moving towards the new P1 salary structures. This was called the "P1 Phase-In" and resulted in significant wage increases for thousands of members. The "P1 Phase-In" ended on April 1, 2024; this is why Grade I/Staff level jobs are paid at the previous Grade 2/Sole Charge salary structures. Affected members saw their wage increase by at least 3.8% on top of the general wage increases of the 2022-2025 HSPBA collective agreement.

In September 2023, regular full- and part-time HSPBA members got their first look at how the employer had decided to match their jobs under the new profile-based classification system. Members received their profile matches from the employer, and then used HSA’s online tool to review their match — this is what was referred to as the Classification Review and/or the classification objection process. This wasn't the final decision; members may grieve now if they can show that the employer has matched their job to the wrong classification profile. 

In November and December 2024, the new classification system will be implemented at all worksites. Though the vast majority of HSA members won’t see any change to their pay as a result of implementation, they will see their classification and salary structure change.  After implementation, your job’s classification will now be one of the seven new profiles: P1, P2A, P2B, or S1 – S4. 

On December 6, 2024, the union will be able to give the employer notice to begin the process of adding new special procedures and techniques to the P2A profile.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Click here to see the most frequently asked questions and answers about this process.

Implementation, Wages, and Retro Pay

The new profile-based classification will be implemented between November 8 and December 6, 2024. When that happens, job classifications will move from the previous system (e.g. Grade I, Sole Charge) to the new profile-based system (e.g. P1, P2A, S2). New salary structures will also be effective on the implementation date.

Please click here for the wage schedules for health science professionals covered by the HSPBA collective agreement that will come into effect when the new system is implemented. Or, for a quicker check, you can use the new wage calculator.

If your job is matched to the P1 Working Professional profile, like the majority of HSA members, you won’t see much of a change as you’ve been paid at the new P1 rate since April 1, 2024.
 
If your job is matched to a different profile (P2A, P2B, or S1 – S4), the salary structure of your job will likely change. The new rates are retroactive to April 1, 2024. If your job’s new rate is higher than your current rate, you will see that increase reflected on your November 8, November 22 or December 6, 2024 pay statement. The employer has agreed to provide retro pay by February 28, 2025.
 
Some jobs in the P2A, P2B and S1 – S4 profiles will have a new wage rate that is lower than members’ current wage rates. These members will be “green circled” which means that they will continue being paid at their current rate, and receive all future general wage increases, for as long as they remain in the same position, i.e. they do not move to the new lower pay rate of their job. Affected members will receive written notification of green circling from the employer prior to implementation. You can read more about green circling in the FAQ above.

Working Professional Profiles

One request we’re hearing is for a simple, plain-language explanation of the new working professional profiles (also called P1, P2A, and P2B). Want to know what they are so you can consider which one best fits your job? Please click!

Where Things Are At

Please click on the headings below to see updates on specific topics related to the new profile-based classification system:

Now that the new profile-based classification system has been fully implemented, there are provisions that allow for your union to advocate to recognize new special procedures and techniques by adding them to the P2A Special Procedures profile. This is an exciting opportunity to recognize and compensate the specialized work of many members who have jobs that are currently matched with the P1 profile.

Special Procedures are defined as:

"A recognized level of expertise or competency in a specialized area of practice. This qualification is obtained through specialized education, training, and experience, which is over and above the full-scope working level and is required in order to carry out duties.”

On December 6, 2024, your union had received and confirmed enough information to move forward with P2A claims for ten professions. The professions and their special procedures/techniques are:

Audiologists

  • Auditory Brainstem Response
  • Cochlear Implant Management
  • Vestibular Assessment and Management

 
Dietitians

  • Parenteral Nutrition
  • Inborn Errors of Metabolism (IEM) Nutrition Therapy
  • Insertion of Nasogastric or Nasojejunal Feeding Tubes
  • Indirect Calorimetry
  • Renal Nutrition/Kidney Care
  • Insulin Dose Adjustment (IDA)
  • Certified Diabetes Education

 
Nuclear Medicine Technologists

  • Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging
  • Computed Tomography (CT)
  • Radiation Safety Officer

 
Radiological Technologists

  • Screening Mammography

 
Speech-Language Pathologists

  • Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Voice and Swallowing (FEEVS) – Adults
  • Tracheo-esophageal Voice Prostheses Assessment and Management
  • Communication and Swallowing Management for Tracheostomy – Adults
  • Videofluroscopic Assessment of Swallowing Disorders – Adults
  • Videofluroscopic Assessment of Swallowing Disorders – Paediatrics
  • Management of Airway Secretions (Oropharyngeal Suctioning)
  • Management of Airway Secretions (Oropharyngeal and Tracheal Suctioning)

 
Diagnostic Medical Sonographers

  • Pediatric Echocardiography

 
Occupational Therapists

  • Hand Therapy
  • Low Vision Rehabilitation
  • Driver Rehabilitation

 
Pharmacists

  • Clinical Pharmacy
  • Oncology Clinical Pharmacy

 
Physiotherapists

  • Hand Therapy

 
Respiratory Therapists

  • Patient/Client Respiratory Education

If you think that your work meets the above definition and should be recognized as a new special procedure or technique, you should know that the P2A process is unique and does not require speaking to your steward or filing a grievance. Instead, please send us an email at redesign [at] hsabc.org letting us know your area of practice and your specialized education, training, and experience. Your union has heard from many members about their specialized areas of practice, but we are always ready to hear from more.

Staff in the classifications department are working to review submissions and build a case that shows how each proposed special procedure or technique meets the definition above. 

We will notify affected members, by profession, as work is added to the P2A profile. Members classified as P1 who perform this work will be coded up or reclassified, as appropriate, based on whether the special procedure/technique is performed for the majority of their work time.

When a new special procedure or technique is added, retroactive pay will be effective from the date that the union gave notice that the procedure or technique should be recognized as part of the P2A profile.

There is no deadline for adding new special procedures or techniques to the P2A profile; members are encouraged to reach out to the union if they feel their work meets the definition above.

If you notice that you’re being paid the wrong rate, please notify payroll and ask them to correct it. We suggest that you do this by email so there’s a record of your request. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, please reach out to a steward for assistance.
 
If you think that your job has been matched to the wrong classification profile, there are two options, depending on which profile you’re seeking:

  • If you think that your job requires you to perform a special procedure or technique that is not already listed on the P2A profile, you do not need to speak to a steward nor file a grievance. There is a separate process to notify your union so that we can advocate to add new special procedures and techniques to the P2A Special Procedures profile that you can read about above. Please follow this process as quickly as you can.
     
  • If you think that your job should be matched to the P2B or S1 – S4 profiles, or if you perform a special procedure or technique that is already listed on the P2A profile,  please reach out to a steward. Your steward will be able to advise you what evidence you need to gather to support your grievance, and assist you in filing a classification grievance.

 
Our next opportunity to refine and improve the profile-based classifications system will be as part of bargaining our next collective agreement in 2025. Preparations for this round of bargaining have already begun; this fall, HSA chapters across BC submitted over one thousand bargaining proposals, including several hundred proposing changes to the classifications system, to the union.
 
Delegates to the HSA Bargaining Proposal Conference spent three days in early November discussing and prioritizing the proposals and electing the Bargaining Committee who will take the prioritized proposals to the bargaining table next year.

If you believe that your job has been matched to the wrong profile of the new classifications system, you need to wait for the new system to be implemented this winter. Depending on your employer, the implementation date will be either November 8, November 22, or December 6, 2024. Once the system is implemented, please reach out to your steward for assistance with filing a classification grievance to correct your job's profile match.

This link will take you to a listing of reference documents for the new profile-based classification system, including all the profiles. In advance of contacting your HSA steward to file grievance, you may want to consider the information contained in the profiles and identify specific details of the duties, responsibilities and qualifications/requirements of your job that make it a match for the profile sought.   

While you likely have skills and abilities above and beyond your job’s requirements, please remember that it is the job and not the employee that is being classified, i.e. it is the aspects of the job (the assigned duties, responsibilities and qualifications/requirements) that will determine the profile match. 

The classification review is now concluded.

As part of the HSPBA classifications review, HSA members who thought that the employer-assigned profile match for a job was incorrect were able to file an objection in the fall of 2023 through the online assessment tool.

That process closed in November 2023 and resulted in thousands of objections moving through the process agreed upon by the union and the employer. The outcome of each objection was decided by an appointed classification referee.

Challenges and Concerns


Your union is aware that for some members, and for some specific professions like pharmacists and supervisors working in medical imaging and medical laboratories, there have been substantive and serious problems with the transition. Your union takes these concerns very seriously.
 
The status of these issues varies: some have been resolved at arbitration, some are still being discussed by the union and the employer, and some cannot be resolved until after full implementation in December. There are also bargaining proposals related to these issues that will be tabled as part of negotiations for the next HSPBA collective agreement in 2025.
 
Here are some of the issues that members and the union are working to resolve:

Your union and the employer were not always able to smoothly negotiate the details of the new salary structures that came with this transition. Where the union and the employer were unable to reach agreement, the disputes were resolved through arbitration.

This includes:

  • P2B: Your union took the position that there should be more than one rate for P2B jobs, particularly since they include jobs that were previously classified at four different levels; the arbitrator did not agree. This is why there is only one wage rate for each P2B sub-profile.
     
  • P2B(S): Your union took the position that the P2B(S) sub-profile should be paid at the same rate as the other four P2B sub-profiles; the arbitrator disagreed. This is why the wage rate for the P2B(S) sub-profile is lower than the rate for the other P2B sub-profiles.
     
  • Supervisory FTE Ranges: Your union took the position that there should be more than four FTE ranges for each supervisory/leadership profile, but our argument was not successful at arbitration. This is why there are only four FTE ranges, and why the largest range is so big, applying to members who supervise 25 FTEs as well as those who supervise 125 FTEs. 

 
We are now in a situation where, despite our shared concerns, these are the salary structures that are in place. Our next opportunity to correct these problems is through bargaining as we negotiate our next collective agreement.

The new profile-based classification system combines the previous Grade 1 and Grade 2 into a new full-scope classification called P1 Working Professional. This works well for almost all professions, but not pharmacists, because it places both dispensing and clinical pharmacists in the same profile even though their work and training is very different.

Your union believes that a solution can be reached by using the new P2A special procedures/techniques profile. Once the new system is fully implemented in December, HSA will seek to have the specialized work of clinical pharmacists added to the P2A profile. We plan to update pharmacist members about this in December.

Some members are in jobs that can be filled by members of multiple professions or in jobs where they supervise members of multiple professions, which has led to confusion about which wage schedule should apply. Your union believes that the highest of the possible salary structures should apply, but discussions with the employer are still ongoing. In the meantime, members in these jobs who feel that they are classified or paid incorrectly should reach out to a steward for assistance with filing a grievance.

Some members are in supervisory/leadership positions where the number of FTEs that they supervise is unclear. Your union has been working to resolve this issue, but discussions with the employer are still ongoing. In the meantime, members in these jobs who feel that they are classified or paid incorrectly should reach out to a steward for assistance with filing a grievance.

Reference Documents
 

The classification manual describes the rules for the new classification system, and the maintenance agreement lays out the process of classifying jobs. The maintenance agreement and classification manual, together with the professional groupings and profile, take effect with the implementation of the new classification system and replace the pre-existing classification provisions of the HSPBA collective agreement. Click here to view the maintenance agreement and classification manual.

The new classification system is based on profiles. Profiles are general enough to encompass all areas and levels of each health science profession within the bargaining unit, but specific enough to differentiate between them. This link will take you to a listing of all the profiles.

As you review the profile documents, know that the new profile-based classification system is based on “best fit”. This means that, though you may see some of your job duties listed on multiple profiles, your job should be matched as a “whole job” to the profile that best describes your overall assigned duties and responsibilities.

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