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December 8, 1998
Foley addresses workload, standardization and some compensation issues
Highlights
- $50 million in new money for new nurses
- All nurses who are union members on January 1, 1999 will be covered by the provincial contract on April 1, 1999, and nurses who become newly-unionized up to Oct. 1, 2000 will receive the full provisions of the PCA six months after certification.
- Mediator does not recommend restoring portal-to-portal car allowance for community nurses
- A one per cent pension premium reduction for 16 months for nurses covered by Public Service Pension Plan
- No increase in shift premiums
- Modest hike in on-call and responsibility pay, with contract language which nullifies a key arbitration on when nurses receive responsibility pay
- WCB top up to be based on net base pay instead of gross pay
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Workload
The Foley Report recommends "the provincial government provide $50 million in new funding to address the problems of the nurses' workload." The money would be allocated as follows:
- April 1, 1999 - $10 million
- October 1, 1999 - an additional $10 million
- April 1, 2000 - an additional $10 million
- October 1, 2000 - an additional $20 million
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This is an increase of $20 million in new money over the $30 million offered by HEABC when contract talks broke off Nov. 15. Mr. Foley estimates the new funding "will result in over 1000 new nurses (either newly-employed full-time or part-time nurses or casual nurses converted to regular status).
A Letter of Understanding, which would be outside the contract, says the Ministry of Health would determine the allocations amongst health authorities. "Thirty percent of the new positions will be allocated to each of the following programs: community, long term care and acute care. The remaining ten per cent will be distributed at the discretion of the Health Authorities." Local union/management committees would be allowed to submit staffing recommendations to their health authorities to access the new positions.
Standardization:
All nurses in the Nurses' bargaining unit on January 1, 1999 will receive "full and complete application of all the provisions of the Provincial Collective Agreement effective from April 1, 1999." (Underlining is Foley's) In bargaining units certified between January 1, 1999 and October 1, 2000, nurses "will receive full and complete application of all the provisions of the Provincial Collective Agreement effective from six months after the date of each certification. Any bargaining units certified after October 1, 2000 will only be covered by this provision with the mutual agreement of HEABC and the NBA"
Right to call in additional staff:
Foley recommends the following language: "If additional staff are immediately necessary due to emergent circumstances either within a particular shift or for the next shift, and no management personnel are on the premises or otherwise immediately accessible to the employee in person or by telephone, the Registered Nurse or Registered Psychiatric Nurse who has been designated in charge shall have the authority to call in additional staff, pursuant to any policies in place respecting such call-ins for specific work units. For such call-ins, call in by seniority pursuant to Article 11.04 (casual call-in language) shall not apply. (Parentheses ours)
WCB Leave
The employer-paid WCB top-up would be based on net base pay, not, as is currently the case, on gross pay before tax and including premiums and differentials.
Vehicle Use
Foley recommends the following new paragraph be added to Article 57.02 (Community-based services): "Business related mileage shall not include the normal distance an employee drives between her home and her regular worksite, but shall include all other mileage included for business purposes. For greater clarity, in cases where an employee proceeds directly to a business location other than her regular worksite, she may claim as business related mileage, all kilometres travelled which exceed the distance between her home and her regular worksite."
Nurses still covered by the Public Service Pension Plan
Foley recommends a "Public Service Pension Plan Accord" that would give these (former Public Service) nurses "the same pension contribution reduction as contained in an accord" reached earlier this year between the province and the BCGEU. The Accord cuts one per cent off the current contribution rate to the Plan, continuing for 16 months, paid in lump sums every three months. Foley also recommends that HEABC and the Nurses' Bargaining Association recommend to the government that former Public Service nurses "receive the benefit of changing the age and service requirement for the Plan from 90 to 85 effective April 1, 2000." At the same time, benefit changes that would require short-serving members to pay part of their health and welfare benefits upon retirement, would also apply.
On-call premium
Foley recommends that effective April 1, 1999, the $1 an hour on-call premium be increased to $1.25 for the first 72 hours on-call in a calendar month, and $1.50 for any further hours in the month.
Responsibility pay (in-charge premium)
Foley recommends the $ .90 an hour premium be increased to $1.25 an hour. However, in so doing, Foley also effectively nullified the effect of a major arbitration win at Vancouver General Hospital that requires the employer to pay the in-charge premium when a nurse-manager is only available by pager within the facility. Foley says "the decision shall have no precedential value and shall not be referred to by either party in any subsequent proceeding."
Other recommendations cover a change in pension legislation for nurses at private-pay long term care facilities; after- hours pay for home support supervisors; a deferred salary leave policy; and qualification differentials. The qualifying period for qualification differential would drop from six months to four; nurses dual registered as RN/RPN would get an additional $50 a month, an allowance also payable to nurses with a BA or MA in Psychology "where this qualification is utilized in the course of the nurse's performance of her normal job duties."
The Nurses' Bargaining Committee will review these recommendations on Wednesday Dec. 9. The BCNU Council will meet Thursday Dec. 10 to decide what recommendation to make to the membership in preparation for a vote.
If accepted, the Foley Report would form the basis of a new collective agreement, along with other matters that were agreed to in negotiations between the Nurses' Bargaining Association and HEABC. This includes agreed-upon contract language as of Nov. 1, and agreements on health and welfare and long term disability. Copies of the complete Foley Report - along with all the other agreed upon items, will be couriered to all stewards in a package by the middle of next week.
Report out meetings will begin on January 5.
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