BCGEU urges continuity of care in home support contract re-tendering

Union lobbies hard for BCGEU caregivers

The BCGEU is strongly urging the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health authorities to minimize disruption to workers and ensure continuity of care for clients by awarding home support contracts to existing agencies staffed by BCGEU health care workers.

The health authorities are expected to complete the contract re-tendering process and announce the successful agencies within the next two weeks.

In recent meetings with senior officials of both health authorities, representatives of the BCGEU - including President Darryl Walker as well as Brenda Brown and Carla Dempsey of the Health Services component - urged against awarding the new contracts to non-BCGEU agencies or agencies based outside of BC with no personal care experience with clients in the service area. The union stressed the importance of maintaining current client-caregiver relationships.

The union also sent letters to individual board members of the health authorities, and asked seniors' groups and health care advocates to make similar appeals on behalf of our members and their clients. In addition, representatives of the Health Services component raised the issue of contract re-tendering at a meeting of the VCH board of directors this week.

The BCGEU has offered to work with the health authorities and the successful agencies once the contracts are announced to ensure a smooth transition while protecting our members' rights under the collective agreement.

We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.