This is a three-year agreement, with minimum pay increases totalling approximately 12 to 14%, depending on if cost of living adjustments are triggered by inflation.

In the first year, covering April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, members will see an average pay increase of 3.83%.

In the second year, covering April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, the pay increase will be a minimum of 5.5%, plus up to 1.25% in additional cost of living adjustments if the BC inflation rate — specifically the average annualized consumer price index for BC —  remains higher than 5.5% over the twelve months between March and February of the year before.

In the third year, covering April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, the pay increase will be at minimum 2%, plus up to 1% in additional cost of living adjustments if the BC inflation rate is higher than 2% over the twelve months between March and February of the year before.

To see how this affects your income, try out the HSA Wage Calculator. 

Yes. Every member will see their wage increase by about 12 to 14% over three years. And that's the minimum -- many will receive much more than that.

The additional wage increases on top of the minimum 12 – 14% will come through long-overdue updates to the classifications system that determines your rate of pay based on your responsibilities. As the collective agreement moves forward to implementing the new system in 2024, there will be the gradual phase-in of higher rates for current staff/Grade I level positions. HSA members in these positions will see additional increases of 3.8% or more by 2024 when their pay rates and job responsibilities rise to that of the current Sole Charge/Grade II level. Further, over the next two years, a special working committee will examine all classifications and new advanced practice and supervisory/leadership classifications will be established for 2024 for all professions. For many, that means a higher rate of pay, beyond what you will see in the Wage Calculator. In addition, some new and some improved premium pay clauses will boost salaries.

The proposed agreement provides a pay increase of at least 12-14% over three years. And many members will receive even more.
This is far more than health science professionals have been able to achieve at the bargaining tables in other provinces:

• Alberta: 4.25% over four years.
• Ontario: 3% over three years.
• Manitoba: 10% over seven years.
• New Brunswick: 10% over five years.
• Nova Scotia: 5.5% over 3 years.

It's worth noting that unlike many agreements in the last two decades, no concessions were required to pay for these significant pay increases. What's different is that BC currently has a provincial government the recognizes the severity of the health human resources crisis, and is willing to invest in the people who keep the health care system running.

The pay increase for the first year (an average of 3.83%) is retroactive to the first pay period after April 1, 2022 as well as parts of the classifications redesign package. All other increases in this tentative agreement would be effective upon date of ratification, unless otherwise specified.

Yes. The pay increase for the first year is retroactive to the first pay period after April 1, 2022.

This is entirely under the control of the employer. The union will advocate for retroactive pay to be issued as quickly as possible.

You will receive retro pay whether or not you are still on the payroll when the employer is ready to issue the cheques. But only if they can find you.

If you are leaving your job soon – or if you've left the position at any time since the first pay period after April 1 of 2022 – make sure you provide the employer with an address where they can forward any retroactive payment owed to you.

Yes. Your pay increase will be retroactive to April 1, 2022, and this will be included in your total pensionable salary for 2022.

If a member has retired after April 1, 2022, and they are drawing their pension, and they are entitled to retroactive pay and the pension contributions for the member are more than $100, the member can choose to have the retroactive salary treated as pensionable earnings and have their pension adjusted accordingly.

If you have any other questions about your pension, contact Municipal Pension Plan at mpp.pensionsbc.ca/municipal-pension-plan

Yes. The proposed agreement includes a Memorandum of Agreement that ensures that if any other public sector union under the same mandate wins a greater general wage increase, that increase would also be applied to this agreement. This does not include all provisions negotiated by other unions -- some items are specifically targeted towards the unique needs of a given union’s membership, and those are not necessarily covered by the “me-too” agreement. HSA monitors the agreements won by other unions very closely, and if a greater general wage increase is bargained then HSA will work to ensure it applies to this agreement as well.

The best way to find out how this agreement impacts you is to use the Wage Calculator, which is on line at calc.hsabc.org.

Yes. But these numbers only represent the first step of a longer process. Further adjustments will be made as all the new classifications changes come into effect 2024-25 after the proposed Classification Redesign Completion and Implementation Committee completes its work to ensure that supervisory and advanced practice work is correctly classified and paid.

If you work in a Sole Charge/Grade 2 or higher position, this means that the wage calculator will only tell you what your minimum pay level will be through 2025. In many, if not most cases, your final pay rate will be higher once the Committee completes its work next year.

The proposed increases are compounded over three years – meaning each yearly increase builds on the one before it – and over the life of the contract this compounding increase results in a total that is slightly larger than just adding up the raw numbers as listed in the proposed agreement. With compounding factored in, the average general wage increase over three years comes to 11.73%, and with Cost of Living Adjustment triggers in years two and three, a total of 14.16%.

A complicating factor is that the mandate from the employer includes a $0.25 per hour flat rate increase in year one of the agreement, and this flat twenty-five cents will change the percentage of every member’s increase differently depending on their current hourly rate. That’s why we’ve built a wage calculator that can provide specifics for your situation.

This question speaks to what a lot of people — and HSA members — are experiencing in BC. Housing prices are at historic highs, having increased 300% since 2000, and obviously wages have not kept pace. The situation isn’t fair, and it adds stress and anxiety to those already enduring the strain of delivering front line health care and community social services during the pandemic.

Your bargaining committee and elected leadership understand this. Housing affordability is a complicated issue, with many different causes and potential solutions. It’s also a provincial issue that’s far beyond the scale of what a 20,000 member union is able to change directly. That’s why we’re using a variety of approaches and working with others to push for change:

Bargaining - Your bargaining committee was clear and firm about the need for a significant wage increase in order to put more money in your pocket now, and in the future.

Advocacy - Every level of government needs to be part of the solution in building more housing that is affordable at every income level. HSA undertook a robust ‘get out the vote’ effort in the most recent local elections across the province.

Labour Movement - HSA has a seat at labour bodies at the provincial and federal level through the BC Federation of Labour and the National Union of Public and General Employees. Wherever possible, we raise the urgent need for more affordable housing across the province.

In each of the second and third year of the proposed collective agreement there are General Wage Increases (GWIs) that may potentially be increased through the application of a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) as follows:          

The COLA in the second and third year will be triggered if inflation exceeds the General Wage Increase (GWI) in each of these years.

The COLA cannot result in a reduction of the GWI. For example, if inflation in the second year is below 5.5%, there will not be a reduction in the GWI. The GWI in the second year would still be 5.5%. The three scenarios for the second year are as follows:

• If inflation is not above 5.5% the COLA is not triggered and the GWI will be 5.5%.
• If inflation is above 5.5% but less than 6.75% in the second year, the Adjusted GWI would be equal to the rate of inflation.
• If inflation is at 6.75% or higher in the second year, the adjusted GWI would be 5.5% plus the additional maximum COLA of 1.25% for an Adjusted GWI of 6.75%.

Inflation will be calculated using the annualized average B.C. Consumer Price Index (AABC CPI). The period used to calculate this average is March to February prior to the applicable April general wage increase.

The individual monthly CPI is added together over the 12-month period and then divided by 12 to determine the average. This figure is then compared with the average for the same period for the previous year. The result is the annualized average B.C. Consumer Price Index (AABC CPI).

AABC CPI is a standard measure for calculating inflation-indexed programs, entitlements and wage triggers. It is used in B.C. for the calculation of allowable rent increases, adjustments to the minimum wage and for MLA salaries.

Using this averaging, the AABC CPI for the period of March 2021 to February 2022 was 3.4%.

If the AABC CPI for the period of March 2022 to February 2023 exceeds 5.5% then the 2023 COLA is triggered.

If the AABC CPI for the period of March 2023 to February 2024 exceeds 2% then the 2024 COLA is triggered.

The most recent published AACPI figure (for the period of November 2021 to October 2022) is 6.4%.

The agreement’s inflation assumptions are based on the annualized average B.C. Consumer Price Index (AABC CPI). This number differs from some of the higher numbers you might hear about the level of inflation, but this measure provides a more sustainable and predictable foundation for Cost of Living Adjustments over the three years of the agreement — it’s most likely to provide more money for you and other HSPBA members over the duration of the agreement.

Using the average inflation, rather than the volatile CPI, is validated by union economists like Jim Stanford.

You can see that over the past 2 years, both inflation numbers have trended upwards:

When we look closer at the changes of both numbers from one month to the next, this is what we see:

This is why the average inflation is used to calculate your wage increase: it protects you from sudden drops in volatile inflation so that your wage increase is never at risk.

HSA has been working for more than a decade to negotiate a new classification system that accurately reflects the complexity of the modern health care team and the essential roles of health science professionals on the multi-disciplinary team. In this round of bargaining, government and employers came to the table with funding to apply the classification redesign needed to modernize the system, recognize those roles, and ensure fairness and consistency in applying the classification system.

Here's why that matters.

Your wage is determined by your classification. Your classification is determined by the health science profession you belong to, and the level of duties and responsibilities of your job. A good classification system keeps pace with the ever-changing ways in which the healthcare system is structured and delivers care. It also ensures that your role in that system is clearly recognized and that you are paid for the full range of the work you do.

The classification structures are mostly unchanged since 1990, despite the fact that your work has become more complex and acute. In some cases, there aren't enough classification/pay levels, leaving health science professionals stuck with little room for career advancement. In other cases, members are paid less than colleagues performing work of the same scope and level of responsibility. The classifications system needs to be updated to apply uniformly to workers across the full spectrum of health science professionals to reflect the reality of the health care system as a whole.

A more uniform and meaningful classification system will help all professions, but will impact many of them differently depending on how well or poorly-served the profession has come to be under the current system. It will also take some time for many of the improvements, but it means that all professions will be recognized equally for their levels of responsibility and any advanced practice roles they may undertake in research, clinical specialization, quality assurance, education, performance of special procedures, and health information systems/applications specialization.

The bottom line is this: while the health care system has become much more complex in the last thirty years, and continues to evolve, the system that determines your rate of pay has not kept up. Improvements to the classification system will deliver overdue recognition of specialized work and, perhaps more importantly, create a foundation that can support new levels of specialization as health science professions continue to develop. This means that the system will be able to assign the appropriate level of pay proactively, not reactively.

Because of the way the healthcare system is evolving, entry-level professionals are being asked to do more and more complex work. But their current pay doesn't reflect this.

The solution is to recognize that these professionals are working at the highest level of their capability, and pay them accordingly.

The new "P1 - Working Professional 1" classification that is part of this proposed agreement will provide a long-overdue solution for this problem. When the new P1 classification is created, all current Staff/Grade 1 professionals would be moved into the P1 classification and be paid at the current Grade 2/Sole Charge level.

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, it provides an immediate pay increase for a large number of professionals across many disciplines – over half of all current HSPBA members. The new P1 classification includes all positions of all professions at the staff level, including those now classified in the Industry Wide Miscellaneous Rate section of the collective agreement. The salary structures for all current staff level jobs will rise to that of the Sole Charge and equivalent rates, and job duties for the current staff level positions will change as these members move to higher levels of responsibility.

Professionals working at higher grades and classifications will also benefit, because this is just a first step in a larger process, one that gives the union a strong position to adjust pay at higher levels. In 2023, a new Classification Redesign Completion and Implementation Committee will work to ensure that supervisory and advanced practice work is correctly classified and paid under a new system to be implemented 2024-25.

This is just the first step in building a new classifications system over the next few years. This first move puts the union in a stronger position to address issues faced by professionals at Sole Charge/Grade 2 and higher.

Initially lifting all professionals working at the Staff/Grade 1 level to the new P1 classification, the proposed agreement delivers a long-overdue pay increase to thousands of members across dozens of professions who have responsibilities and duties that were not recognized with appropriate pay.

But it doesn't stop there.

For professionals already working at the Sole Charge/Grade 2 or higher level, this move puts the union in a much stronger position to win new recognition for members who work in specialized practices. The comprehensive classifications redesign process means that all positions will be reviewed closely to finalize appropriate pay rates.

This process establishes a new Classification Redesign Completion and Implementation Committee to work out the details for supervisor and advanced practice members in 2023. This process will look like this:

• The employer will match all existing jobs to new profiles and then notify the union and each employee as to the profile assigned in the new system.
• At that point, HSA and each member can dispute the new classification, which allows us to ensure that supervisory and advanced practice work is correctly classified and paid under a new system that will be implemented 2024-25.
• While the salary structures attached to the advanced practice and supervisory profiles are not yet finalized, we do know that no HSA member will take a pay cut as a result of the introduction of the new system. In fact, many positions will see pay increases.

If you work in a Sole Charge/Grade 2 or higher position, this means that the wage calculator, will only tell you what your minimum pay level will be through 2025. In many, if not most, cases your final pay rate will be higher once the Classification Redesign Completion and Implementation Committee completes its work next year.

The creation of the P1 classification is an improvement to the HSPBA classification system that began in 2010. The goal of classification redesign is to ensure that the classification system accurately reflects the complexity of the modern health care team and the essential roles of health science professionals on the multi-disciplinary team. In many professions, staff and Grade 1 classified health science professionals are working at an advanced level, and the change to the classification system recognizes that.

In the case of pharmacy, the initial change seems incompatible with unique circumstances in pharmacy, where current Grade 1 pharmacists are dispensing pharmacists, and Grade 2 are clinical pharmacists, and there is no overlap in the work performed, as there is in the vast majority of other professions in HSPBA.

This issue will be referred to the Classification Redesign Completion and Implementation Committee to address for 2024-2025 when the new classifications system will be implemented.

For the first time in 20 years, we were able to negotiate a significant pot of money to make the much needed overhaul to the classification system – in addition to the general wage increase of about 12 – 14 per cent for every member. For historical context, in the 2019-2021 contract negotiations, a modest amount of funding was negotiated to implement changes to anomalous classification issues that had historically resulted in classification inequities.

In the 2022-2025 tentative agreement, we have secured the money needed to fund a major classification redesign for the whole membership. With that funding, we were able to negotiate the nuts and bolts details and finalize the principles and foundation of the modernized system to accurately reflect the nature of members’ work. Until the principle and foundation of the system were agreed to, it was not possible to proceed beyond the foundation. If the agreement is ratified, the foundation is in place and a process to add layers onto the negotiated foundation and principles is also in place.

The big job was to get agreement on the design of the foundation affecting about 60 per cent of members – and that has been achieved in this tentative agreement.

The next steps of matching job descriptions to determine the layers of classifications building up from the P1 classification is the work of the Classification Redesign Completion and Implementation Committee. The committee will work to ensure that supervisory and advanced practice work is correctly classified and paid.

Members will be consulted and will have an avenue to appeal the new classification of their job proposed by their employer. That work will be completed by March 2025 and the redesigned and modernized classification system will be in place

Many. Premiums will be increased for members working short notice ($2.00 an hour increase when members are offered and accept a straight-time shift within 24 hours of it starting), super shifts ($1.00 per hour more for each hour worked between 23:30 Friday and 07:30 Saturday, and between 23:30 Saturday and 07:30 Sunday), and weekend shifts (an increase to $2.30 an hour). The on call premium will increase to $5.95 per hour. There is also a new premium that will be added to the straight time hourly rate for members who work at designated forensic psychiatric units.

Members will also see more money for expense reimbursement for education, which is increased from $600 to $1000, and the leaves can now be applied to online/virtual training sessions.

The cost for renewing criminal record checks will now be covered by the employer, and the cost for sick leave notes outside of the disability management process will be split with the employer.

Unsustainable workload is the problem that needs to be solved, and the proposed agreement makes workload management an OHS issue. This approach means the employer has to respond with action to reduce the workload by dealing with the staffing problems themselves and treats correcting the workload issues for members as a priority. A working short premium, on the other hand, allows the employer to pay a small penalty for letting the problem persist, working a smaller number of staff harder rather than adding capacity to ensure safe and sustainable workload.

But the proposed contract also increases many other premiums. Working short notice premiums will increase ($2.00 an hour increase when members are offered and accept a straight-time shift within 24 hours of it starting), super shifts ($1.00 per hour more for each hour worked between 23:30 Friday and 07:30 Saturday, and between 23:30 Saturday and 07:30 Sunday), and weekend shifts (an increase to $2.30 an hour increase). The on call premium will increase to $5.95 per hour. There is also a new premium that will be added to the straight time hourly rate for members who work at designated forensic psychiatric units.

During the bargaining proposals conference last fall, members from across the province brought forward a wide variety of proposals to improve premiums and differentials. Your bargaining committee was faced with making some difficult decisions as to which were the highest priorities for the membership across the province in terms of all monetary provisions of the collective agreement. This included making any changes and improvements to premiums.

We negotiated three NEW premiums into the agreement:

• a short-notice premium of $1 per hour;
• a super shift premium of $2 per hour; and
• a premium for members employed at the Forensics Psychiatric Hospital of 2% or 4% depending on the security level of the facility

We were also successful in achieving increases to:

• the weekend premium; and (from $2.00 to $2.30 per hour)
• the on-call premium (from $4.25 to $5.95)

HSA and your bargaining committee agree that evening and night shifts are challenging and disruptive for members in terms of work life balance, and agree that premium improvements should continue to be a priority in future rounds of bargaining.

The agreement adds one day of paid leave (7.5 hours) for “household and domestic emergencies” — for example you wake up to find your furnace or hot water heater has failed and the situation needs immediate attention. The leave is available for each household emergency. For example, if your hot water heater fails in December, and a wind storm knocks a tree onto your roof in March, you are entitled to take the time to deal with both emergencies. There is already a considerable body of case law on the question of what exactly constitutes this kind of emergency, and what that means is that HSA legal experts are well-versed on what is and what is not acceptable.

Your benefits are unchanged. Since 2017, negotiations on benefits no longer happen as part of the HSPBA collective agreement bargaining. Instead, they are governed by the Joint Health Sciences Benefits Trust (JHSBT). This body meets each fiscal year to determine what changes, if any, might be viable. You are encouraged to send your thoughts directly to the JHSBT by emailing info [at] jhsbt.ca. As the JHSBT considers benefit redesign those items will be discussed by the Benefits Redesign Committee.

You can find out more about your benefits at the JHSBT by visiting their website.

The agreement provides for an additional 6.2 FTE of paid steward time for all HSPBA members, of which 5.2 FTE will apply to stewards for HSA members. This will bring the total complement of paid stewards for HSA members to 10.5 FTE. The union will be consulting with members on the best allocation for this increase of member servicing capacity. One of the steward positions is designated for the other unions with members covered by the HSPBA collective agreement.

This is a significant new benefit achieved in the tentative agreement, and provides approximately $3.5 million for partial reimbursement of professionals fees. This is in addition to any fees the employer requires as a condition of employment. In those cases, the employer is responsible for paying the fees.

The Professional Fees Fund presents an opportunity for members who may be required to pay professional fees -- such as college or regulatory fees -- to apply to have a portion of these reimbursed.  It is intended to expand reimbursement beyond fees which are already reimbursable under Appendix 28

The workload pressures we are facing have built up over years, and it will take some time to fix the situation. But this agreement puts several things in motion that will begin relieving the pressure.

First, by providing the first significant wage increases in several decades, this agreement begins to undo the damage caused by the deliberate efforts of previous provincial government to drive down wages for specialized health care workers. Higher pay will help attract new recruits, and retain those already in the system.

The long-overdue reforms to the classifications system are complex but will deliver meaningful improvements to pay, job security and career development over the long term, helping reduce loss of those specialized health professionals who feel the current system doesn’t provide enough recognition, respect, and opportunity.

In addition, there are a number of smaller but significant improvements to workplace safety, enhanced leave provisions, more effective representation by stewards, cultural inclusion and education which will make working in the health care system more attractive. For example, in the proposed collective agreement, workload is recognized as an OHS issue, and immediate supervisors have an obligation to address safety concerns related to it. That’s going to result in more immediate changes to relieve workload pressures.

In addition to increased pay and many provisions making the health care system a more attractive place to work, the proposed agreement includes a specific provision to develop and implement strategies to improve training and recruitment of health science professionals, and a new Health Sciences Strategic Relations Committee which focuses on local level issues that impact recruitment and retention at the health authority level. The agreement also provides for participation in the new Joint Provincial Health Human Resources Coordination Centre, an industry-wide government-led consultation focussed on implementing a new provincial strategy on health human resources.

No, the changes to Article 10.08 do not give the employer any expanded rights whatsoever.

The changes simply modernize contract language to keep up with the changes we've seen in the health care system since this language was first introduced back in the 1990s. Back then, there were no health authorities as we now know them, and the structure of health care delivery was completely different. Terms left over from that time – clusters, healthcare regions and Community Health Councils – no longer apply, so they have been removed from this proposed agreement.

Redeployments do happen, especially under crisis circumstance, but the bottom line is If your employer is trying to move you to a different worksite and claims they have the right to do this under Article 10.08, we encourage you to speak to a steward or call our office and speak to an LRO.

The proposed agreement builds on OHS work started in the 2019 - 2022 collective agreement which led to the creation of SwitchBC — an organization focused on the health, safety, and well being of BC’s health care workers. SwitchBC is guided by its Board of Directors, which is made up of an equal number of employer and worker representatives. The HSPBA holds one of the worker representative  positions on the Board of Directors. A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and various working groups support SwitchBC staff with projects including the building of an occupational health and safety resource centre, an update of the Provincial Violence Prevention Curriculum (PVPC) and implementation of occupational health and safety standards covering OHS systems and psychological health and safety. The HSPBA has representation on the TAC and working groups.

The tentative agreement provides direction to SwitchBC in several important occupational health and safety areas, including on the development of system-wide training on biological hazards and the precautionary principle, updating the PVPC with a trauma-informed lens and developing suitable resources for health sector employers, unions and joint occupational health and safety committees in support of psychologically healthy and safe workplaces. 

Recent pandemic experience pointed out the gaps that exist in current measures to protect workers from biological hazards. For example, the denial of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) was a common occurrence when a worker could not provide specific evidence that the PPE was necessary in the circumstances. The tentative agreement will entrench the “precautionary principle” which according to WorkSafeBC, means “adopting provisional precautions covering all routes of transmission, based on a higher level of protection, when the identity, aetiology or routes of transmission of the biological agent designated as a hazardous substance in section 5.1.1 have not been established”. In other words, workers in situations where routes of transmission may be in question – such as in the early days of COVID 19 when there were disagreements about whether or not transmission occurred via airborne particles – will be entitled to a higher level of protection. New language requests SwitchBC to develop system wide training on the precautionary principle.

Significant changes in Article 39 expand collective agreement protections for all types of workplace discrimination, bullying, harassment, and violence. Employers will be required to update policies and practices to ensure appropriate actions take place in response to reports of incidents, including on how incidents are reported, investigated, and followed up on.

The tentative agreement provides language ensuring that when a workload related health and safety concern is identified to a supervisor, the supervisor must initiate an investigation in the same way any other safety incident would be investigated. This includes a situation that has the potential to cause an injury to a worker or others.

The Canadian Standards Association Psychological Health and Safety Standard provides detailed guidelines covering workplace responsibilities for dealing with psycho-social hazards. New collective agreement language will now require the employer to consult with the union in identifying and controlling psycho-social hazards, including on the role of joint occupational health and safety committees in investigating those hazards, using the CSA Standard as guidance. As well, SwitchBC will be asked to develop resources to support this work.

It’s important that the union has your personal email address so you can receive information about the agreement, invitations to information meetings, and your credentials to vote in December 14-21. If you have not provided HSA with your current personal email address, you’ll miss important updates about information meetings to discuss your questions about the contract, and information about how to participate in the voting.

It’s easy to update your email and contact information here: https://www.hsabc.org/contact/member-contact-update-form

Voting will be open from 8:00 a.m. on December 14 to 11:59 p.m. on December 21, 2022.

All members covered by this tentative agreement will have a chance to vote to accept or reject it. The vote will be conducted online, using Simply Voting, a secure e-voting system that HSA members already use for election of Regional Directors.

Voting credentials will be emailed out to all members for whom HSA has a personal email address as of the end of November. This will happen on December 14. Make sure to check your spam folder. And if you aren't sure if HSA has your email address on record, you can check this quickly here: https://www.hsabc.org/update

Remember that HSA will only send the credentials and other union business to a person email address. Your work address will not be used.

If you haven't provided your personal email to HSA by the end of November, your credentials will be mailed out. These should arrive no later than December 14. If you don't receive your credentials by this time, or if you misplace them, contact info@hsabc.org any time before December 20 to get new credentials.

The voting will be conducted through Simply Voting Inc., an independent, full-service provider of securely hosted online elections. Their voting system was launched in 2003 and currently over 4000 organizations in 67 countries, from municipalities to political parties to unions, rely on Simply Voting to safely execute their elections. Many reputable third parties have audited the company’s product, technical infrastructure, and corporate infrastructure. Customers include the BC General Employees Union, the BC Federation of Labour, the Alberta NDP, and the Mississauga First Nation.

If a majority of voting members reject this contract, the negotiations team would have to start from scratch. The terms of the proposed agreement would be tossed out, and the process would start again. That means there is no guarantee that the General Wage Increase of about 12 to 14% would still be available should the process begin again.

This means that while we might be able to achieve a better contract, we might also be forced to accept a worse one (in which case we would not be able to revisit the previous tentative agreement). The odds of being able to achieve a higher wage increase than that offered by the “Shared Recovery Mandate” are almost zero due to the cost to the government that would impose. (Each public sector agreement ratified in recent weeks has a “me too” clause where they receive the same higher wage increase if it is achieved by another union.)

The bargaining committee and your Board of Directors believes the proposed agreement is the best deal possible and is recommending that members vote yes to accept the tentative agreement.