A new web page on the CUPE Health Workers site is ready to assist members who work full- or part-time under the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) in determining whether their employer has properly classified their work.

The process, part of a new classification redesign aimed at modernizing the healthcare system, ensures that your role in the system is clearly recognized, that your job has been classified properly and that you are paid appropriately.

The web page contains information about the process, answers to frequently asked questions, and a 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. It also includes a profile match objection form in case your employer has misclassified your job.

The employer is expected to provide each member with their job description and match in the redesigned classification system by no later than September 22. Members who have not received their new job description by then should request the documents from their supervisor or manager. If there are problems related to receiving your job description, please contact  bchealth@cupe.ca.

Please remember that you must complete the classification review questionnaire before November 15. If the employer has misclassified your job, you will also need to submit a profile match objection form to your employer before that date.

Union members covered by the HSPBA collective agreement urged to reach out to former colleagues with important information about retro pay, including deadlines for eligibility. 

The Health Sciences Professional Bargaining Association (HSBPA) and the Health Employers Association of British Columbia (HEABC) reached a Memorandum of Agreement this month on retroactive pay for eligible members who ceased employment on or after April 1, 2022 – the date that most of the monetary terms and conditions of the 2022-2025 HSPBA collective agreement came into effect.

This retroactive pay agreement, which was concluded on July 21, 2023, ensures that union 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 that date.

This applies to any member who stopped working for a 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 they are not required to apply for retroactive pay under the terms of this Memorandum of Agreement.

Retroactive pay includes all monetary provisions such as wages, premiums, allowances, and leaves and is calculated on all paid hours. Please check the summary of changes for more details.

Eligible members will receive a letter from their employer, at their last known address on record, with details on how to apply for retroactive pay. Under the terms of the agreement, the employers will send these letters 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 employer will determine the method and timing of the payment, but it will be no later than December 1, 2023, and will be by cheque or direct deposit.

Important deadlines

• Letter from employers to former employees: August 15, 2023
• Last day to apply for retroactive pay: October 14, 2023
• Retroactive payment to former employees: no later than December 1, 2023

If you know someone who may be eligible for this retroactive payment, please forward this important information to them so they can apply for the money owed to them.

Former employees who are eligible for retroactive payment should contact their Local if they do not receive a letter from their former employer outlining how to apply for the retroactive pay to which they are entitled.

This fall, all members in the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association will have the opportunity to help modernize the healthcare system, ensure your role in that system is clearly recognized, and confirm that you are paid for the full range of the work you do.

Health science professionals work in over 70 different professions. The work is complex and becomes more complex with each passing year.

But for many of BC’s health science professionals, the current classification system has not kept pace with the change in their work.

For over twenty years, previous governments have refused to modernize the classification system. In the last round of bargaining, however, the HSPBA and the current government struck an agreement to complete the design and implementation of the new profile-based redesigned classification system.

Why this 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 scope of the work you do.

The classification structures have been 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 classification system needs to be updated to apply uniformly to workers across the full spectrum of health science professionals 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 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.

Who is affected?

All members who work in health science professions under the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA)

How do I know if I am included?

You can contact the union to confirm that you are or are not a member under the HSPBA.

When does this happen?

Employers are currently compiling job descriptions for all HSPBA members and will provide these to you directly in the early fall. While the timing is up to individual employers, they are required to do this by no later than September 22.

What do I need to do?

For now, nothing. The first step will be taken by the employer, who will be preparing to provide you with your job description and notification of what classification profile they’ve assigned to your job. They will provide this to you directly by September 22, 2023.

Between September 22 and November 15, you’ll need to fill out forms provided by CUPE. These will guide you through the assessment of your job to determine if the employer has assigned your job to the right classification profile.

If the employer has misclassified your job, the union will advocate for assignment to the correct classification profile starting in late November.

What are the Next Steps?

CUPE will be providing more information to all HSPBA members later this summer. In the meantime, please ensure that your contact information is correct, and encourage your worksite colleagues to be sure that your Local Union has their contact information as well.

CUPE HSPBA members can expect to begin receiving pay raises towards the end of next month.

Timing and delivery of the new pay rates are entirely in the hands of the employer. With the recent agreement on the formulation of wage schedules, the employer is expected to begin making the necessary payroll changes. This is expected to take about six weeks, in line with the implementation seen in comparable contract negotiations.

Pay increases negotiated as part of the 2022-2025 Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association Collective Agreement, ratified by members on December 21, 2022, will also deliver retroactive payments going back to the first pay period after April 1, 2022. Again, in line with the implementation seen in comparable contract negotiations, retroactive payments can be expected to take a further three weeks after members see the new higher rates on their pay statements.

Members can expect an average general wage increase of 3.83 percent in the first year of the new contract, ending March 31, 2023. Pay increases will be at least 5.5 percent and 2 percent in the second and third years respectively, plus any Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increases should inflation remain above the negotiated percentage wage increases. Over the three-year agreement, all members will see a pay increase of a minimum of approximately 12 percent to 14 percent, plus increases that may result from the comprehensive review of job classifications in 2023 and 2024.