Media Release

The 23 recommendations made by the BC Legislature’s Committee on Children and Youth are critical to addressing the current crisis in mental health services for children and youth.Health Sciences Association (HSA) represents health professionals working in mental health and addictions in acute and community health care settings throughout the province. Members include child and youth mental health support workers, psychologists...

HSA lawyers Tonie Beharrell and Randy Noonan and HEU’s Kaity Cooper appeared in the Supreme Court of Canada today to challenge the decision of the BC Supreme Court and BC Court of Appeal to overturn a decision of the BC Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT). The WCAT had recognized three cases of breast cancer contracted at Mission Memorial Hospital as...

Printer-friendly version. July 16, 2015 (St. John's, NL): After a week of activities organized by health care advocates from across the country calling for federal leadership to ensure universal access to public health care, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Paul Davis has announced that the he and his provincial counterparts are asking the federal government to increase the health-related...

health care workers who don’t get a flu shot, or wear masks at work, face risk of being fired An arbitrator has ruled on the controversial flu shot policy for health care workers, siding with the health authority policy that dictates all health care workers must get immunized against seasonal influenza, or wear a mask at all times during the...

Families and advocates for children with serious mental health challenges are speaking out against a month-long closure of the child psychiatry inpatient unit at BC Children’s Hospital. The month-long closure from July 19 to August 19 is to allow for a redesign of the treatment model used at the unit. The program is being redesigned from a 24/7 inpatient program...

To follow HSA Convention news as it happens, visit our Facebook page Members of the Health Sciences Association, the union delivering modern health care that represents health sciences professionals who deliver diagnosis, treatment and recovery in BCs hospitals and communities, is meeting this weekend at its 42nd annual convention in Vancouver. Over the course of the next two days members...

Following a consultation process that can only be described as a sham, BC Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid – on the day before the current government dissolves – announced today the enactment of legislation that dramatically changes the structure of collective bargaining in health care, HSA President Reid Johnson said today. “On her last day on the job, Health Minister Margaret...

Health science professionals have voted 83 per cent in favour of accepting a new contract that includes wage increases totaling three per cent, and protects the wages of hospital pharmacists who were threatened with wage rollbacks of up to 14 per cent. The agreement was reached between the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) and Health Employers’ Association of BC...

The bulk of savings announced in the Liberal government's last-ditch attempt to convince British Columbians they can present a balanced budget is coming out of the health care system, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said today in releasing the Liberal government's last budget before this spring's election. "If you reduce spending in health care, you reduce services to British Columbians...

After almost a year of bargaining for a new contract, the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) has reached a tentative agreement for nearly 17,000 health science professionals working in hospitals and communities across British Columbia. "In yet another very difficult bargaining climate, our priority was to achieve fair and reasonable wages for our members, and to continue to provide...