June 7, 2012
The Community Bargaining Association (CBA) met last week and over the weekend in Vancouver to exchange and discuss proposals with the Health Employers’ Association of British Columbia (HEABC).
Last week the two parties discussed issues and exchanged amendments to previously tabled proposals. The CBA tabled counter proposals related to casuals, job postings and classifications. HEABC and CBA tabled and discussed counter proposals to the grievance and arbitration procedures and continued to discuss the scheduling provisions.
In a discussion led by Larry Scott from UFCW, the CBA reviewed the anti-bullying provisions in Bill 14 (amendments to the Workers Compensation Amendment Act, 2011).
Talks are scheduled to continue for two more weeks.
The primary non-monetary issues remaining are scheduling, grievance and arbitration procedures, health and safety, anti-bullying and allowances. Benefits and compensation will be discussed after non-monetary items have been dealt with.
“While some progress is being made, the committee remains frustrated with the slow pace of negotiations,” said Pat Taylor, a CUPE bargaining committee member. “We expect that bargaining will shift to monetary issues shortly.”
Taylor adds that the bargaining committee is waiting for HEABC to bring a fair and reasonable wage offer to the table.
CUPE represents approximately 500 members in the CBA which has over 14,000 members, the majority of whom are represented by the BCGEU. Other Unions at the table are UFCW, HEU, HSA, and USWA.