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October 23, 1998
Extending Nurses' Job Action
HEABC's CEO Gary Moser stated today that HEABC expects a contract settlement for nurses within the next three weeks. The Nurses' Bargaining Association would like to see that happen but there are 67 issues still on the table, so we are preparing for an extended dispute.
As we prepare for moving into the next phase of job action, it is useful to briefly review the circumstances that have brought us to this point. The Nurses' Bargaining Association is in a unique position because of the large number of issues that have to be addressed in order to achieve a fair Provincial Collective Agreement. We are still dealing with multiple items that have been carried over from melding over 80 nurses' collective agreements during Bargaining 96. At the same time, we urgently need to address the universal workload issues that have developed because of health care restructuring. This means we have to pace ourselves carefully, move strategically, and coordinate our job actions to coincide with developments at the bargaining table.
Acting together for quality care
We have a great deal of public support on our main bargaining goal of achieving the resources to deliver quality care. Our objective in all job action is to place growing pressure on the employer, to minimize inconvenience to patients, residents, clients and the public and to give the bargaining teams the opportunity to resolve issues. We can only achieve this if we all work together through each step of our job action.
Outstanding issues
The 67 outstanding issues at the bargaining table remain despite having started bargaining in March of this year. We can no longer accept this lack of progress. Nineteen of the 67 outstanding issues relate specifically to contract language. Of these, 18 have no cost attached and the employer has acknowledged that these will not cost the health care system money. Now is the time to clear these issues from the table.
Attached is the list of 19 language issues presented to the HEABC on September 28. Nothing has changed since then.
HEABC on notice
We will be serving notice to HEABC that unless these 18 no-cost language issues are satisfactorily addressed by 1600 on Wednesday, October 28, we will be escalating our job action. Your steward will have details of this next action.
Nurses' Bargaining Association Outstanding Language Proposals
List of Outstanding Language Issues
Presented to HEABC on September 28, 1998 |
Package A II
1. Regular status and equal benefits for employees in temporary positions.
2. Creation of regular float positions.
3. Ability to increase FTE for part-timers.
Package C II
1. Whistleblower protection.
2. Protection against harassment.
Package C III
1. Call-in of part time employees by seniority.
2. Criteria for call-in of casuals with less than 24 hours notice (short call).
3. Definition of a block of work for casuals.
4. Penalty for cancellation of casual work.
5. Merged seniority lists for Unions in the Nurses' Bargaining Association.
6. Dual vacancy postings for RNs and RPNs.
7. Employer to respect interunion jurisdiction order.
Package C IV
1. Regular status for eligible client specific nurses.
2. Insufficient notice of change of shift schedule for client specific nurses who are deemed regular employees.
3. On-call and call-back provisions for after hours services provided by home support agencies.
4. Single arbitrators versus three-person arbitration panels.
5. Criteria for filling vacancies.
6. Integrating Section 2 language for Community Based nurses with Section 1.
Package C V
1. Requirements of Union to receive computerized membership data from employers.
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