This fall, all CUPE members in the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association will have the opportunity to help modernize the classification system. By taking part, you can ensure that your role in the system is clearly recognized and confirm that your job is classified and that you are paid appropriately.
More than 1,200 CUPE members work as health science professionals in many different professions in communities across British Columbia. The work is complex, and it’s getting more so with each passing year. For many of B.C.’s health science professionals, the current classification system has not kept pace with the change in their work. For over twenty years, previous governments refused to modernize the classification system. In the last round of bargaining, however, your bargaining association and the employer struck an agreement to complete the design and implementation of the new profile-based classification system.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Your classification is determined by the health science profession you belong to and the level of duties and responsibilities of your job, which all determine your wage. A good classification system keeps pace with the ever-changing ways in which the health care system is structured and delivers care. It also ensures that your role in that system is clearly recognized and that you are paid appropriately for the work you do.
The current classification structures have remained mostly unchanged since 1990, even though your work has become more complex and acute. In some cases, there aren’t enough classification/pay levels, leaving some health science professions without recognition for the work they do. In other cases, members are paid less than colleagues in other health science professions who perform work of the same scope and level of responsibility.
Starting this fall, the classification system is being updated. When this process is done, it will apply uniformly to workers across the full spectrum of health science professions to reflect the reality of the healthcare system as a whole.
The bottom line is this: while the healthcare 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 recognize advanced practice work and supervisory/leadership work in the same manner for every profession, resulting in a fair and equitable system that uniformly applies to all health science professions.
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?
The first step will be taken by the employer, who will provide you with your job description and notification of which of the new classification profiles they’ve assigned to your job. They will provide this to you directly by September 22, 2023.
Before November 15, you’ll need to complete our classification review questionnaire, which will guide you through an assessment of your job to determine if the employer has assigned your job to the correct classification profile.
If the employer has misclassified your job, a profile match objection form must be submitted to your employer before November 15.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Please visit our extensive FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section.