Discussions continue on contract for health science professionals

With four days of discussion now completed, the Paramedical Professional Bargaining Association and Health Employers Association of BC have made very little progress on key issues.

In the Framework Agreement signed June 10, 2004 by the two parties, it was agreed that negotiations on a number of issues continue. Those discussions have been restricted to the following topics agreed to by both parties:

• administrative issues related to the unions ability to represent members in the workplace
• bumping and posting language
• long-term disability
• hours of work
• adequate off-duty hours for those providing services on-call
• classification issues
• mileage
• recruitment and retention
• contract language housekeeping

The agreement stipulates that discussion on these issues must conclude by July 30.

PPBAs chief negotiator, Ron Ohmart, said the four days of talks on the issues have been informative.

-The issues on the agenda have been canvassed. However, we havent reached any significant agreement in any of these areas," he said.

-We will be meeting again next week for continued discussion and an attempt to come to some agreement on conclusion of these discussions," he added.

Under the terms of the framework agreement, the two parties agreed to discussion on these topics. If there is no agreement on how to deal with these issues in the contract, then the union and employer bargaining committees will recommend ratification of a roll-over of the current collective agreement.

Ratification votes on the collective agreement ... either as a roll-over or with changes ... will be held throughout the province in early fall. Please watch your union bulletin board for information.