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December 3, 1998
Job Action suspended to await recommendations for settlement from mediator
Nurses Bargaining Association picket lines will be brought down today Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 23:30 pm and all other job action will be suspended at 6 am Dec. 3, following a decision by the NBA Bargaining Committee and BCNU Council to take a report by mediator Brian Foley to union members for a vote.
The mediator, who is head of the Labour Relations Board mediations division, assured the union his report will address workload, standardization and fair compensation. The unions will receive his report by the end of the day on Dec. 8 and the NBA Bargaining Committee will meet Dec. 9 to make a recommendation to the BCNU Council as to whether to recommend acceptance or rejection of his report. Membership meetings to review the mediator's report will begin the week of Dec. 14.
The NBA Bargaining Committee and BCNU Council made this decision in order to avoid a legislated cooling off period and the probability of another Industrial Inquiry Commissioner. A full explanation of the decision will be available at the membership meetings.
The fact that the mediator will review our compensation issues is a major breakthrough in terms of the bargaining process. When bargaining broke off Nov. 15, HEABC had given the NBA inadequate proposals on workload and standardization, and demanded that we take all our remaining equality and compensation issues off the table. Pay equity will not be one of the mediator's recommendations.
After almost four days of mediation, we now have an assurance from Mr. Foley that his recommendations will address fair compensation (premium increases) for nurses as well as improved workload and standardization packages.
We acknowledge the work and energy that members of WJACs, CJACs, stewards and members have done, and we recognize the disappointment felt by many members in facilities where picket lines were planned and not established this week. We know members were ready and willing to escalate job action. And we still may need to take job action again if the mediator's report does not adequately address our workload issues.
HEABC was unwilling, during the mediation process, to make any significant moves toward addressing issues of fair compensation for nurses. And they were continuing to insist that unless we abandoned virtually all our compensation-related issues, they would not discuss increasing the provisions for the creation of new FTEs, or implementing standardization before the end of the contract.
While escalation of the picket lines seemed an obvious option, the bargaining committee came to the conclusion that HEABC was taking its hard-line bargaining stance, because it was confident the provincial government would quickly pass legislation ending job action and that an IIC would be appointed with terms of reference which would not allow us to bargain workload or our fair compensation issues.
The Bargaining Committee and Council determined that we could achieve much more and avoid these dangers, through the route we have chosen to follow, taking the mediator's report to a membership vote.
Mr. Foley has given an assurance he will address workload, standardization and fair compensation. Members will have a chance to vote on his recommendations. And if members decide to reject Mr. Foley's recommendations, we will be free to go back to the bargaining table and resume job action at that time.
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