Former employees should expect important letter on retro pay
You must respond to the letter from your former employer no later than October 14.
BC health authorities have begun contacting former employees with instructions on how to access any retroactive payment they may be eligible to receive under the terms of the 2022-2025 Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) collective agreement.
Former employees should have recently received or will be receiving a letter from their former employer in the coming days.
In order to receive any retroactive payment you may be eligible for, you must respond to the employer no later than October 14.
If you are a former employee who left after April 1, 2022 and you do not receive a letter by Thursday, August 25, you are advised to contact your former employer directly and reach out to your HSA steward and/or Labour Relations Officer to assist you in following up with your previous employer on this matter.
Contact @email if you do not know how to contact your steward or Labour Relations Officer.
Background
HSA pushed hard to ensure that HSPBA members who left positions with health authority employers after April 1, 2022 would be eligible to receive the same retroactive payment as current employees.
On July 21, HSA achieved an agreement with the Health Employers Association of BC. This agreement ensures HSA members covered by the HSPBA collective agreement whose employment ended after April 1, 2022 will receive payment for all monetary provisions related to work they performed on or after April 1, 2022. This applies to any member who stopped working at an HEABC employer through resignation, retirement, or termination by the employer. It applies only to employees who have severed their employment relationship. For clarity, members who retired but remain casual employees have a continuing employment relationship so are not required to apply for retroactive pay under the terms of this Memorandum of Agreement.
Eligible members will receive a letter from their employer at their last known address on record, with details on how to apply for the retroactive pay. Under the terms of the agreement, these letters will be sent by the employers no later than August 15, 2023. Eligible members will have 60 days from the date of the letter to respond to the employer.
If a former employee does not provide a response within 60 days, the employer will not be required to pay.
The method and timing of payment will be determined by the employer but will be no later than December 1, 2023, and may be by manual cheque or direct deposit.
Help make sure your former colleagues don’t miss out
If you know someone who may be eligible for this retroactive payment, that is, any colleague who stopped working after April 1, 2022, please forward this important information to them so they can apply for money owed to them.
Important deadlines:
- Letter from employers to former employees: sent out August 15, 2023
- Last day to apply for retroactive pay: October 14, 2023
- Retroactive payment to former employees: no later than December 1, 2023