The HSPBA bargaining committee is engaged in focussed discussions with the employer through most of June. The discussions are being led by subgroups of the committee negotiating matters related to managing union leave disputes and expedited arbitration procedures.

Negotiations continue, and progress is being made, but more slowly than hoped for at the outset. To date we have had high level discussions on wages and monetary proposals, including issues related to leaves, classifications and recruitment/retention. We hope to make as much progress on this as possible before negotiations pause for a summer break.

The committee continues to work hard to achieve the goals set by health science professionals at last fall’s bargaining proposal conference: agreements on action for recruitment, retention, respect, recognition of the responsibility held by health science professional members of the health care team, and supporting resilience in our physical and mental well being.

FAQs

The HSPBA’s lead union has posted a series of FAQs based on questions about how the bargaining process works, and what happens if job action becomes necessary. The full list is posted here. Below are a number of the most common questions:

Our current contract expired in March. What happens now?

While the contracts covering CUPE members in community health expired on March 31, 2022, the terms of these agreements remain in force until new contracts are negotiated and voted on by all union members. That means your pay and benefits remain unchanged for the time being.

Who is negotiating my new contract?

The Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) collective agreement is being negotiated by a bargaining committee comprised of professional negotiators employed by the union, subject experts on specialized labour relations matters, and ordinary CUPE members elected by their peers to ensure member concerns are addressed at the bargaining table and in the new agreement.

When might we go on strike?

Negotiations for the contracts covering CUPE members began in March 2022 and are still in the early stages. Talks with the employers will likely continue for the next few months. If no progress is made by the fall, and bargaining is at a stalemate, CUPE may consider taking a strike vote then.

What if another union goes on strike in the next few weeks?

If you see a picket line at your workplace, do not cross it. If another union plans to go on strike, they will communicate through the BC Federation of Labour with other unions who may have members affected by the strike picket line.

What would a strike or job action look like?

We take job action when withdrawing our services is the only power left to us to achieve our bargaining demands, and before taking any sort of job action, we must take a strike vote.

Job action can take many forms. It could start with the refusal to perform specific duties and escalate to an all-out withdrawal of everything but essential services. A common form of job action is “work to rule”. This is where you refuse to do any duties that are not specifically part of your job description, like certain paperwork, administrative duties, or portering. A ban on overtime is a similar form of job action. These types of job action place pressure on the employer while keeping members at work. Rotating job action is where members withdraw their services for a short period of time, usually one day. An example of rotating job action is to withdraw services in one department for one day, and then have the members return to work the next day while another department withdraws their services. This type of action minimizes financial loss to CUPE members while putting pressure on the employer.

Maintaining care for patients and clients remains a top priority, and essential levels of service, which are negotiated with the employer, must, by law, be maintained.

What are essential services? How will I know if I’m considered essential?

Essential service levels are currently being negotiated between the union and the employer. No job action can be taken until such time as the final levels are agreed to by the BC Labour Board.

In the event of job action, the union will take over responsibility for scheduling the work needed to achieve essential services, and in order to be eligible for these essential service shifts, CUPE members must perform picket duty. This can take a number of forms as there are a lot of jobs that need to be done during job action. CUPE will work with the steward and job action team at your workplace to ensure that members know what to do and that essential service shifts are distributed equitably.

During the time that members attend work for essential service shifts, they are paid their regular salary by the employer. When members are performing their picket duty jobs, they are paid by the union.

The Health Science Professional Bargaining Association (HSPBA) resumed talks last week with the Health Employers’ Association of BC (HEABC). Discussions are scheduled to continue this week and next.

Negotiations are currently focussed on non-monetary matters, but during the last round of talks ending April 14, HSPBA proposed wage increases needed to make meaningful improvements to professional shortages, workload, the rising cost of living and the wage gap with other provinces. The proposal seeks a two-year agreement with a wage increase of 5 per cent—or COLA (cost of living adjustment), whichever is greater—in each of the two years.

HSPBA has also proposed a number of other measures that would bring greater equality to job classifications across different health science professions in B.C. and greater comparability to pay in other provinces, improve on call and call-backs, improve overtime pay and shift premiums, provide more funding for professional development, improve vacation and holiday leave, paid and unpaid pandemic leave, and provide a bank of paid time for gender-affirming surgeries.

We expect HEABC to provide a response to the wage proposal during this round, and we will provide an update at that time.

Meanwhile, pleasure ensure that your contact information is up to date. If your address or other information has changed, you can update it at: https://forms.office.com/r/mXDGtvAhWb.

The Health Science Professional Bargaining Association (HSPBA), in talks this week with the Health Employers’ Association of BC (HEABC), has proposed a wage increase for health science professionals that, if accepted, would begin to address the critical issues undermining pandemic response and public health care in B.C.: chronic shortages, the rising cost of living, and the wage gap with other provinces.

The proposal seeks a two-year agreement with a wage increase of 5 per cent—or COLA (cost of living adjustment), whichever is greater—in each of the two years.

HSPBA has also proposed a number of other measures that would bring greater equality to job classifications across different health science professions in B.C. and greater comparability to pay in other provinces. They would also improve on-call and call-backs, improve overtime pay and shift premiums, provide more funding for professional development, improve vacation and holiday leave, paid and unpaid pandemic leave, and provide a bank of paid time for gender-affirming surgeries.

HSPBA has been in contract negotiations with HEABC since March 1. Prior to tabling the wage proposal this week, the bargaining committee made proposals concerning occupational health and safety matters related to workload, discrimination and harassment, facilitation of health sector-wide action on OH&S issues, and classification proposals addressing concerns with employer-wide initiatives. Talks will now pause for a scheduled break while the bargaining committee awaits the employer’s response to these proposals.

Unions representing almost 400,000 public sector workers are currently in negotiations. With employer proposals for wage increases falling well below the current level of inflation in B.C., the HSPBA awaits an official response to the wage increase proposals tabled this week. CUPE and other unions covered by HSPBA are working closely to ensure fair and reasonable gains for the front-line workers who have kept the province and the health care system running through an unprecedented global health crisis.

The HSPBA master agreement covering health science professionals in B.C. expired on March 31. Its provisions remain in force until a new agreement is ratified.

Negotiations will resume on May 2. Meanwhile, please ensure that your contact information is current. To update it, please visit: https://forms.office.com/r/mXDGtvAhWb.

Despite news on Thursday of an impasse in public sector bargaining between the provincial government and its direct employees over wages, the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) is preparing to table a wage proposal for health science professionals next week that addresses staff shortages, the rising cost of living, and closes the wage gap between B.C. and other provinces.

BCGEU, the union representing direct government employees, announced yesterday that after nine weeks of talks it will take a break from bargaining to focus on negotiating essential services levels required to keep necessary government services running in the event of a strike or lockout, and preparing to take a strike vote to back contract demands. The break in bargaining was precipitated by the failure of the government to table a wage package that protects government workers from the skyrocketing cost of living in British Columbia.

HSPBA’s bargaining committee, which has been in active contract negotiations with HEABC since March 28, is scheduled to pause for a break at the end of next week. The Bargaining Committee has to date made proposals addressing a number of priorities identified by members. These include occupational health and safety matters related to workload, discrimination and harassment, facilitation of health sector-wide action on OHS issues, and classification proposals addressing concerns with employer-wide initiatives.

The Bargaining Committee is also committed to changes that address colonial features of the collective agreement. In the current round of talks, the Bargaining Committee is tabling equity and inclusion initiatives as well as removing colonial language.

CUPE, along with the other unions covered by HSPBA, has been actively negotiating essential services levels since January. We are also watching developments at other public sector bargaining tables closely, as a number of public sector agreements expired on March 31, 2022.

CUPE continues to work in close collaboration with our allies in other unions to achieve fair contracts for all workers who have been on the frontlines of protecting and serving British Columbians through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the opioid and climate catastrophes.

Meanwhile, please ensure that your contact information is up to date. If there have been changes, you can update your contact information at: https://forms.office.com/r/mXDGtvAhWb

The HSPBA Bargaining Committee has concluded the initial round of discussions with the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC), which began March 3.

To date, the Committee has tabled language in three areas:

• Housekeeping and non-monetary language, including amendments that will address outdated and colonial language in the collective agreement;
• Occupational health and safety matters related to workload, discrimination and harassment, and facilitation of health sector-wide action on OHS issues; and
• Classification proposals addressing concerns with employer-side initiatives.

The union and employer sides have agreed on some important changes to address the colonization of the collective agreement. Our occupational health and safety and classification proposals are complex and under consideration by the employer caucus during a two-week hiatus in negotiations. The union caucus will be focusing on developing a monetary package in light of information emerging about signs of a restrictive wage proposal from government.

Negotiations will resume when the Committee and HEABC return to the table on March 28.  At that time we will be tabling equity and inclusion initiatives and exploring monetary discussion.

Please ensure that your contact information is current. You can use this link to update your information: https://forms.office.com/r/mXDGtvAhWb .

BURNABY—Bargaining for the new Health Science Professional collective agreement, which covers 19,500 workers in B.C. including approximately 1,000 CUPE members, has begun.

On Wednesday (March 2), representatives from the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) sat down with the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) Committee, a team including professional negotiators, labour relations specialists and rank and file union members elected by their peers from around the province.

The bargaining committee is guided by recommendations voted on by members at a bargaining proposal committee meeting held last November, and the front-line members participating on the committee bring direct experience of the challenges facing health science professionals at this time.

Their focus is on the following:

• Recruitment: without enough people on the multidisciplinary health care team, the crushing workload just is not sustainable.
• Retention: without the right conditions, we can’t hang onto the people we need to deliver consistently excellent service.
• Respect: as specialized health care professionals, the contributions health science professionals make must be understood and recognized.
• Responsibility: there is no health care without specialized health care professionals. Health science professionals do not carry that burden of responsibility lightly and must be recognized for the role they play on the health care team.
• Resilience: health science professionals need support for their physical and mental well-being to be able to go back shift after shift to do what they are trained to do – and passionate about doing.