RE-VOTE For Collective Agreement

Your bargaining committee is pleased to advise that a tentative agreement for your new Collective Agreement has been reached with your Employer. The tentative agreement reached applies to all union employees working at Piccadilly, Cerwydden and Mountain Lake Senior Communities, both for Pro Vita Management Inc. and WestCana Services Inc. Please click to view your tentative agreement here.

Piccadilly and Cerwydden employees are represented by the B.C. General Employees' Union. Mountain Lakes employees are represented by the Hospital Employees Union.

The bargaining committee members from both the BCGEU and the HEU unanimously recommend acceptance of the tentative agreement, and encourage you to vote "yes".

Ratification Meeting Details

               Date:                    Tuesday March 1, 2022

               Time:                   "Drop in" between 2:30 p.m – 4:30 p.m.

Ratification highlights will be explained at 2:30 and 3:30 p.m., and members can ask questions at any time.

               How:                    Zoom video or telephone

Check your email or contact a member of the bargaining committee for details to join the ratification meeting

Highlights of the Tentative agreement:

The full ratification agreement can be viewed by clicking here. When you vote, you will be voting to accept all the changes in the entire document. Anything new will be in bold, underline and highlight like this. Anything that will be removed from your current agreement will be struck through like this.

During the bargaining process, your bargaining committee was able to achieve many significant issues and improvements in the collective agreement without giving any concessions. A breakdown of those improvements are listed below. The improvements and changes made in this tentative agreement are consistent with other settlements in this industry and consistent with what you the members told your bargaining committee through the bargaining surveys. Your committee strongly believes there was nothing else that could have been achieved this round of bargaining. That is why your committee is unanimously recommending acceptance. 

By far, the biggest issue on the table was how to deal with wages if the single site levelling up wage rate agreement is terminated during the life of the new agreement. Your bargaining committee is pleased to say they were able to find a resolution to that issue.

• Length of agreement
  January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023

• Wages
  If the single site levelling up wage agreement ends during the duration of this collective agreement the wages will be dealt with in two stages.
  
  First, all wages will be reverted to the post-levelling wages shown in the attached tentative agreement documents.
  
  Second, the parties will immediately open up the collective agreement to negotiate the ongoing wages. If the parties are unable to come to agreement on wages within 90 days, the issue will be referred to a binding third party arbitrator to resolve the wage issue.

• Lump-sum Payment/ Signing Bonus
  Employees employed on date of ratification will receive a lump-sum payment as follows:
  
  Full time $600.00
  Part time $500.00
  Casuals $200.00

• Benefit improvements
  Premiums
  
  Afternoon premiums increased from 15 cents to 40 cents date of ratification, 50 cents August 1, 2022 and 60 cents August 1, 2023
  Nightshift increase from 25 cents to 50 cents date of ratification, 60 cents August 1, 2022, 70 cents August 1, 2023

• Vacation
  Reduced the amount of time to achieve more vacation plus add a new 10% vacation category as follows:  1 to 2 years 4%; 3 to 5 years 6%; 6 to 11 years 8%; 12 years and up 10%

• Sick Leave
  Increase sick leave accrual from maximum of 30 days to 45 days; sick leave to be paid at 100% once the probationary period is over; 40% payout of unused sick leave when retiring.

• Bereavement leave
  Provide bereavement leave for loss of employee’s pregnancy.

• Transportation allowance           
  Increase allowance from 50 cents to 59 cents per km
  Increase maximum insurance costs from $75.00 to $150.00

• Other Enhancements to Collective Agreement
  New updated maternity and adoption leave language that provides for significantly longer leaves and protections during the leaves.
  
  New Occupational Health and Safety language providing stronger rights, education and pay.
  
  New Harassment and Bullying language providing significant improvements in dealing with harassment complaints and a strong process to fight against bullying.
  
  New additional leaves of absence language allowing for leaves such as Family responsibility; disappearance of a child; Death of a child; domestic or sexual violence; jury duty; Covid 19 etc.
  
  Improvements to Compassionate Care leave.

Voting Information
Voting will open on Tuesday, March 1^st at 4:30 pm. You will receive an email with a link to vote online and your unique voting credentials. Voting will close on Friday, March 4^th at 12 pm. We strongly encourage you to vote, as this will be your only method to cast a ballot.

A member who does not receive a voting credential (likely because BCGEU does not have their personal email address), or who experiences problems casting their vote, should contact [email protected], or Monique Wemhof (Staff Representative) by calling 604-291-9611 or 1‑800-663-1674 ASAP after voting opens, but no later than Thursday March 3^rd at 5 pm. This will allow enough time to issue a voting credential that day before voting closes. Please note that phone support is available during regular BCGEU office hours from 8:30 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday.

The email regarding your credential to vote will come from [email protected]. Please check your junk/spam folder just in case the email is sent there. To avoid this, you may wish to add this email address to your email contact list.

Please log into the Member’s Portal here to ensure BCGEU has your correct email address for voting credentials to be emailed to you.

Your bargaining committee is looking forward to meeting with you on March 1^st and we encourage you to vote YES and ratify your new collective agreement.

In solidarity,

Laurie Johnson, Bargaining Committee Member
Maude Joe, Bargaining Committee Member
Monique Wemhof, Staff Representative - Negotiations

UWU/MoveUP