HSA members at Paragon Orthotic Lab in Victoria, a manufacturer of custom footwear orthotics, have voted unanimously in favour of accepting a four-year collective agreement.

Highlights of the agreement include wage increases equal to the cost of living, or a minimum of 2 per cent, in the third and fourth years of the agreement, in addition to increased benefit coverage in the third and fourth years of the agreement. The benefit coverage improvements include increases in dental coverage, as well as the introduction of eyeglass coverage for employees’ spouses.

Health Science Professional members of HSA are reminded that changes to extended health benefits coverage took effect on June 1st with the implementation of PharmaCare Tie-In.  As part of these changes, all HSP members should by now have received a BlueNet card. The BlueNet card direct-pay of eligible prescriptions when picking them up at the pharmacy instead of paying up front then submitting receipts for reimbursement.
 

Under the terms of the new collective agreement, a further wage increase of 1 per cent for all members,  excluding pharmacists, is effective the first pay period after April 1, 2013, which is the pay period of April 12 to April 25, 2013.

Members are encouraged to check their pay stubs to ensure the increases are applied effective April 12, 2013.

To realize wage gains won through bargaining, health professionals are moving to a 37.5 hour workweek.

In bargaining, the employers agreed to a cooperative, consultative process when implementing the 37.5 hour workweek. In this process, staff, supervisors and managers will consult in each department, section or work unit that has a current schedule with extended workdays (i.e. workdays of more than 7.5 hours per day) and revise the schedules.

Community social service workers have voted in favour of a two-year contract that provides a wage increase while protecting health and welfare benefits.

Community Living workers ratified the tentative agreement by 71 percent. General Services ratified by 84 percent. The weighted average ratification vote for both sectors was 76 percent. HSA represents almost 800 community social services workers covered by these two agreements.

The spirit of the negotiated agreement surrounding the change from a 36-hour to a 37.5-hour work week was confirmed this week as the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) and Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) reached agreement on a process to implement the 37.5 hour work week agreed to in the recently ratified collective agreement.

THE REPORT: APRIL 2013

Medical Laboratory technologists at (PHSA) Whistler Health Care Centre joined HSA on February 27.

The employees approached HSA about becoming members of the union and the decision to join was unanimous. This new chapter is a first – no other employees of Whistler Health Care Centre are unionized.

Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid on Monday announced that new nursing legislation had been signed into law, bringing licensed practical nurses under the same bargaining structure as the B.C. Nurses’ Union.

A 3% wage increase is now in effect for registered psychiatric nurses covered by the Nurses’ Bargaining Association provincial contract.

You can see your new wage rate here. 

In a recent letter from human resources managers at Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, employees have been told they will be moving to a five-day 7.5 hour work week and that nine-day fortnights and EDOs will be eradicated.

The letter completely misrepresents the negotiated agreement reached on the shift to a 37.5 hour work week from the current 36 hour work week worked by health science professionals, says HSA’s Executive Director of Legal and Labour Relations Jeanne Meyers.