After 9 weeks of talks, nearly 44,000 hospital and long-term care workers have reached a tentative three-year agreement with the Health Employers Association of B.C.
The Union’s Jennifer Whiteside says the proposed agreement includes initiatives to tackle the alarmingly high rate of injuries that make health care among the province’s most dangerous workplaces.
The settlement also restores and strengthens protections against contracting out that were stripped from the collective agreement in 2002 by the B.C. Liberal government of the day.
Full details of the agreement which include compensation increases in line with the government’s negotiating mandate for public sector employers will be provided to union members in advance of ratification votes which are yet to be scheduled.
Workers covered by the agreement work in hundreds of job classifications in hospitals and health clinics, long-term care homes, corporate offices, and supply warehouses.
