UPDATE MAGAZINE May 2016 Special Issue
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OTHER CONTRACT CHANGES Our tentative agreement includes several other important changes that are highlighted below. For more information on these and all the other language provisions in the new Provincial Collective Agreement, please visit the Member Portal at www.bcnu.org.
EXPANDED LEAVES Compassionate leaves of absence with pay in the event of a death will be extended to include step-children, step-parents, step-brothers, step-sisters and legal guardians. Paternity leaves are expanded from 7.5 hours to 37.5 hours, and adoptive leaves are established at 37.5 hours. Special leaves are modified to include up to 7.5 hours annually for nurses to assist an immediate family member address a serious or potentially life-threatening illness. Special leave hours can also now be banked, with time accrued at one site portable to another. MAINTENANCE OF STRAIGHTTIME PAID HOURS (MOA re: Appendix MM) – From 2016 to 2019, HEABC will provide the NBA with the total number of straight-time paid hours nurses in the public system work each year. During those years, the total number of nurses’ straight-time paid hours will be no less than the total number of straight-time paid hours worked in 2016. And, each year, HEABC will also supply the number of FTEs, broken down by FT, PT and casual, as well as the number of overtime hours worked by nurses.
period after April 1, 2016, new employees (LPN /RN/RPN) will no longer be eligible to receive the Qualification Differential payments set out in Articles 53.04 (University Preparation) and 53.05 (Baccalaureate Degree). MODERNIZED COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT Within three months of the ratification of the proposed collective agreement, HEABC and the NBA will establish a joint working group to review the collective agreement, and identify opportunities to improve its structure and clarity, including potentially re-writing certain provisions of the agreement – on a without-prejudice basis – in plain language. STEWARDS (Article 6.04 C) – Accompanying a member, at her request, to respectful workplace meetings has been added to the current list of steward duties and responsibilities.
RECORDS REMOVED (Article 16.03 B) – Members may request that a letter of expectation be removed from their file and destroyed 36 months after the letter’s date (provided the behavior or conduct that resulted in the letter of expectation being issued has not reoccurred within the intervening period). JOB DESCRIPTIONS (Appendix HH) – The current agreement calls for each health authority and Providence Health Care to reduce the number of job descriptions to 60 by March 31, 2014. (Some health authorities had over 1,000 job descriptions.) BCNU was concerned that designing job descriptions had become a “cottage industry” that helped some employers ensure they could hire the candidate of their choice. Several employers did cut the total number, but others claimed that 60 was too low and wanted the current language removed. Both sides now agree that within six months of ratifying the tentative agreement they will – with assistance from the Nurse Staffing Secretariat – negotiate a viable settlement.
MEET YOUR PROVINCIAL BARGAINING COMMITTEE
REGULAR PART-TIME EMPLOYEES (Article 11.03 C) – When it doesn’t result in overtime, and after exhausting the casual call-in list, the employer will now offer shifts to part-time employees based on seniority. TEMPORARY POSITIONS (Article 17.03 B) – Employers may create regular temporary project positions (i.e., pilot projects or term specific assignments) from the current 12 months to up to 36 months. These positions are not renewable after the project’s end date – unless both sides agree to renew or extend the time limits. BACCALAUREATE DEGREE (Article 53.05) – Effective from the first pay
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TEAM EFFORT From left: Margo Wilton, Carolin Bleich (BCNU staff), Michelle Grant, BCNU Director of Communication Systems and Policy Advisor Patricia Wejr, Carly Poissant (BCNU staff), Rhonda Croft, Rachel Kimler, BCNU President Gayle Duteil, Donna Bouzan (BCNU staff), Mary Jean Power, JJ. van Doorn, Jonathan Karmazinuk, Marlene Goertzen, Tracy Mailey-Baur, BCNU Executive Director of Negotiations and Strategic Development Gary Fane, BCNU Director of Legal Services and General Counsel Umar Sheikh, and Linnea Kubik (BCNU staff).
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