Employers to recognize nurses at 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-year career milestones

A total of $12 million has been made available to health science professional members over four years

Your bargaining committee has achieved an historic agreement that delivers record-setting compensation for BC nurses. It provides meaningful incentives that will help retain nurses today and attract the nurses needed for the future. And with the groundbreaking Ministry of Health commitment on mandatory nurse-patient ratios, the employers must make significant improvements to address shortages over the next three years.

The Nurses’ Bargaining Association (NBA) bargaining committee reached a tentative collective agreement with the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) this evening.

The terms of settlement include record-setting compensation for BC’s nurses. The agreement comes after months of meetings between NBA negotiators and HEABC, bringing the collective voice of thousands of nurses to the bargaining table.

To cast your ballot, you’ll need voting credentials provided by HSA. This personal ID and unique password was emailed out by our secure elections supplier Simply Voting on March 20th. 

As your representatives on the Nurses’ Bargaining Association (NBA) bargaining committee, we are pleased to share the following update regarding current negotiations with the Health Employers Association of BC and government.

The Nurses’ Bargaining Association committee has unanimously agreed to escalate the intensity of our bargaining process. In the weeks ahead, the committee is going to be working harder than ever, putting in longer hours every day and turning up the pressure on the employer at the bargaining table. 

The member unions of the Community Bargaining Association (CBA) have voted by 94 per cent to ratify a new three-year collective agreement with the Health Employers Association of British Columbia (HEABC).
 
Pay increases are retroactive to April 1, 2022, and the remainder of the collective agreement comes into effect immediately. The agreement will be effective until March 31, 2025. The employer controls when retroactive pay will be paid, but the union will advocate for it to be issued as quickly as possible.
 

We are advised that employers are working to input the new HSPBA wage rates into their payroll systems so that the 2022 wage rates will start being reflected in upcoming employee pay statements.

Retroactive payments will be processed after these payroll updates have been made. 

If you do not receive your new wage rate or retroactive payment, please follow up with your employer.

Voting on your tentative agreement opens on Saturday morning (more on that below), and all CBA members are invited to join information meetings scheduled for tonight and tomorrow:

• Thursday February 16
  7:00 to 8:00 pm PST
• Friday February 17
  noon to 1:00 pm PST

The tentative agreement reached by your representatives on the bargaining committee is an historic, greatly-expanded collective agreement that meets the priorities set by members like you working in community health across the province. Your negotiating team applied relentless pressure on the employers – backed by your courageous support – forcing the government to put new money on the table that brought wages and premiums closer than ever to those of our colleagues in the Facilities Agreement, while protecting extended health and long-term disability benefits.