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NBA Proposes Joint Committee to Reduce Overtime Instead of HEABC'S Controversial DDO Proposal
Union proposes 50 per cent reduction in overtime instead of the less than 10 per cent reduction proposed by HEABC
The proposal to eliminate the overtime provision for part-time nurses who work on their designated days off, has caused a great deal of controversy in this round of bargaining.
Health care employers have fastened on the removal of part-timers scheduled days off from Article 27(B)(3), as the main issue they want to achieve in renegotiating the Provincial Collective Agreement. Employers argue that a significant portion of the provincial nursing overtime bill is paid to nurses who have not worked full time hours, and that that shouldn't be occurring. We agree that taxpayers should not be paying overtime for part-time nurses to work on designated days off. Part-timers shouldn't be working on their designated days off. DDOs are days of rest.
Union does not support part-timers working DDOs unless emergency
BCNU does not support part-time nurses working on their designated days off. The whole purpose of the overtime penalty is to discourage employers from requesting part-time nurses to work on their designated days off. The intent of the provision is that part-time nurses will know in advance which two consecutive days off work they will have each week, and they will be sure of not being called in on those days, unless there is an emergency.
All employers have to do to avoid the payment of overtime on designated days off, is to instruct staffing clerks not to request part-time nurses to come in on their designated days off.
Employers argue that if they did this, they would not have enough nursing staffing. We say it is management's responsibility to schedule the workforce efficiently and they already have the means and the authority to do so.
Managers Responsible for Scheduling
Unit managers do not know how much overtime is being worked on their units, on what shifts, by what employees, because they are not given the information.
Most managers have not reviewed the pattern of overtime on their units and assessed if they need more full-time positions, or part-time positions with a higher number of regularly scheduled working hours.
When data is reviewed on a unit basis by shift, it is possible to see that where more nursing hours are required on a regular basis either full or part-time, if there is a need for a vacation relief position, if some worksites/units need to train more casual specialty nurses, if the rotation needs changing to better meet care hours.
Union proposal for Joint Committees to Reduce Overtime
The Nurses Bargaining Association has proposed that a joint union-management committee be established in each region to work out how to reduce overtime by 50 per cent. The proposal is attached and will be discussed with HEABC this week.
BCNU believes the proposal put forward by the nurses unions is far superior to HEABC's proposal because it aims to reduce overtime on all units and at all worksites. Even if we accept HEABC's figures that the provincial overtime bill is $60 million (we believe the real figure is $84 million per year). And even if HEABC's proposal to eliminate overtime for part-timers on DDOs is completely successful and eliminates all overtime worked by part-timers, it would only reduce the provincial overtime bill by $7.5 million.
The union proposal aims to reduce overtime by $42 million. And just as important, it retains the provision which preserves part-time workers two consecutive designated days of rest per week.
Part-time nurses in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland all have penalty provisions in their union contracts which say that employers must pay part-time nurses double time if they schedule them on their days off. Why should part-time nurses in BC not have the same protection?
Please lobby your MLA, managers, family and members of the public, about this issue.
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