UPDATE MAGAZINE October 2013
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Staff Profile
HERE’S WHO’S SUPPORTING BCNU MEMBERS AND LEADERS
LABOUR RELATIONS OFFICERS ELEANOR LONNEBERG AND LIZ HARGREAVES HELP INJURED MEMBERS GET BACK TO WORK ELEANOR LONNEBERG and Liz Hargreaves have a passion for their work, and it shows. The full-time Labour Relations Officers (LROs) are two of the more recent additions to BCNU’s Burnaby office staff, and they are primarily responsible for handling “duty to accommodate” cases for our members. Duty to accommodate stems from human rights legislation stipulating that employers may not discriminate against a worker based on a disability. Hargreaves explains that she and Lonneberg focus on the law, human rights and utilizing the Enhanced Disability Management Program (EDMP), which is part of the Nurses’ Bargaining Association collective agreement and has been formally implemented by health authorities this year. “Our focus is on people that are away from work because of a disability, and require some sort of medical accommodation to return to work,” she says. Lonneberg and Hargreaves bring years of knowledge and experience to their BCNU portfolios. Lonneberg is a long-time nurse – she went to her 35-year
nursing graduation reunion last month – whose path to labour relations seems natural looking back now. “I have a really keen sense of justice and fair play and I wanted to make sure that nurses got treated fairly,” she says. “I’ve always been one to read what’s in the contract, kind of like a Ward Rep on the unit where I worked,” she recalls, adding that it was no surprise when she eventually stepped into the role of Steward at
Mount Saint Joseph Hospital in Vancouver. After successfully completing LRO training, Lonneberg made the decision to leave the bedside in order to “nurse the nurses.” She says her clinical background helps when she listens to members talk about their work. “I do understand what they mean, so it was a good decision to come here. The work is really satisfying.” Hargreaves came to BCNU on a different path. She began to work in clinical rehabilitation after completing a degree in kinesiology and worked in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary setting, primarily on return-towork, injury rehabilitation, and disability management cases. “My learning curve right out of university was so steep, but I
WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE Two of BCNU’s more recent Labour Relations Officers, Eleanor Lonneberg and Liz Hargreaves bring years of experience to their roles.
learned so much!” she recalls. Hargreaves went on to work as an adjudicator for the Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board, and then moved to Sun Life Financial, working as a rehabilitation consultant. As a result, she brings a broad perspective on disability management to her work at BCNU. Familiarity with recovery periods, understanding long-term disability, WorkSafeBC, and how to access community resources is just some of the knowledge she uses daily. Lonneberg notes the “tripartite” nature of her work at BCNU, and explains the process requires the member, the employer and the union to work together to come to a solution. “Everybody, even the disability managers we work with, know it’s good for people to be back at work,” she says. “Nurses strongly identify with their profession, so just getting back to work is such a lift to them.” “We have an aging workforce, and there are a lot of reasons that people require accommodation,” says Lonneberg. Hargreaves agrees that nurses as a group are very committed to the work they do. “Nurses are defined by their passion. They love what they do and they just want to keep nursing,” she says. “I want to help them live out their career and enjoy nursing for as long as they possibly can. When I get a call from a nurse saying ‘thank you for helping me,’ that’s all I need. I can deal with the rest.” UPDATE