Nurses

All HSA Registered Psychiatric Nurses are reminded that you will have until next Thursday, February 27, 2014 to file a grievance about lack of drug coverage. Decisions about grievance remedies will be made after February 27 once a full review of every individual grievance has been completed. To file a grievance on your behalf HSA requires that you complete the...

83% of HSA RPNs reject raid campaign to date Registered Psychiatric Nurses at Surrey Memorial Hospital and Abbotsford Regional Hospital have voted to stick with HSA despite an aggressive and well-funded raid campaign by the BC Nurses' Union and the Union of Psychiatric Nurses. The results in Surrey and Abbotsford are consistent with dozens of other votes held at worksites...

Re: Pharmacare Tie-in – Grievance and Arbitration Award In the last round of bargaining, the Nurses' Bargaining Association (NBA) agreed to modify the existing drug plan in the collective agreement to include a Pharmacare Tie-in. You were advised of these changes in January 2013. The Pharmacare Tie-in was supposed to go into effect on February 1, 2013. However, as a...

HSA members gathered in Richmond last week to consider HSA members’ priorities for the Nurses Bargaining Association. Wages and benefits are the priorities for HSA’s more than 1,400 registered psychiatric nurses who work under the Nurses Bargaining Association collective agreement. Members called for a fix to the Pharmacare Tie-in implement in the 2012-2014 contract, as well as for improved wages...

Registered psychiatric nurses represented by HSA have a lot of questions about pressure tactics currently employed by the BC Nurses Union and the Union of Psychiatric Nurses. Both BCNU and UPN have recently pressured members already represented by HSA, and we've been getting questions about whether it's possible to cancel these memberships. The deadline is now Depending on exactly when...

The week of November 19, HSA will hold bargaining proposal conferences related to the four public sector contracts under which members work. Local union meetings are being held for members to discuss proposals for consideration at the conferences, which will set the direction for bargaining new collective agreements. The contracts all expire March 31, 2014. In addition to local proposal...

A new Enhanced Disability Management Program (EDMP) negotiated into the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association and Nurses' Bargaining Association contracts in the last round of bargaining comes into effect today. The program replaces disability management programs previously run by individual health authorities. Jointly developed with employers and other unions over several year, EDMP is an employee-centred, proactive, and customized disability...

HSA Registered Psychiatric Nurses are encouraged to access funding available through the union for professional development. “Continuing education is important to Registered Psychiatric Nurses, and HSA has structure this fund – obtained through contract bargaining – to provide access to training dollars to as many members as possible,” said HSA President Val Avery. “HSA recognizes the expenses related to professional...

RPN members have expressed concern that an upcoming round of votes ordered by the Labour Relations Board will result in HSA members becoming members of another union. This is not the case. The votes will not involve RPNs, and to date, the Labour Relations Board has not given any indication that its decision will have any bearing on HSA's right...

A policy grievance arbitration over the unprecedented Influenza Control Program Policy introduced by the Health Employers' Association of BC (HEABC) last August will open tomorrow in Vancouver. In October 2012 the Health Sciences Association of BC, on behalf of the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA), filed a policy grievance calling for the withdrawal of the province-wide flu shot policy...