Better Wages 

We are guaranteed to receive a general wage increase of over 14% across three years in this round of bargaining, but we’re fighting for even more than this. 

Union Proposal: In addition to the general wage increase, we are fighting for “low-wage redress.” By securing this language, many of you would receive another pay bump this year (on top of the 14+% increase) and an agreed method to provide more pay bumps in future rounds of bargaining. We would keep receiving increases until we catch up with other workers in our respective fields who are currently making more money than us. 

• The problem: BC Housing Maintenance workers are paid about 25% less than City of Vancouver employees who are doing similar work. Many Admin members are making $1-2/hr less than counterparts in the provincial government. By industry standards, most of you are severely underpaid. 
• Our solution: Oblige BC Housing to commit 2% of the Admin payroll to wage bumps for underpaid Admin staff, and 5% of the Maintenance payroll to wage bumps for all Maintenance members. 

Employer's Position: BC Housing wants to base Maintenance wages on the BC K-12 Education Sector and other Public Sector work. They want to determine Admin wages with their new classification plan (see next section) but with no idea of the impact on your wages. BC Housing wants to cherry-pick which Admin jobs, in the near term, get wage increases. Without a clear selection system this process will be haphazard and leaves you vulnerable to favoritism.  BC Housing is not committing to a dollar-figure to achieve low-wage redress for either Maintenance or Admin

A Fair Classification System for Admin 

Classifications are like job titles. Negotiated between a union and an employer, they not only indicate what type of work you do, but they also determine where you sit on a wage grid and where you can progress on the grid. 

The Problem: BC Housing has never agreed to a fair, standardized classification system for Admin, meaning that many Admin staff who are doing similar work are classified differently and paid differently. This is unfair, and there’s no path for you to appeal this problem either. 

Union-Proposed Solutions:  

• Create a transparent, standardized classification system so that the employer cannot arbitrarily assign job titles and corresponding wages. 
• Establish a process for members to appeal their classification if they feel they’ve been unfairly classified.  
• Our proposals will lead to automatic wage bumps for some of you, create more internal equity, and clear some existing roadblocks to promotions. 

Employer Proposal: Integrate admin members into their classification plan without assessing the impact on your wages. 

Better Benefits & LTD Protections 

Union-Proposed Solutions:  

• Increase paramedical benefits (includes chiropractic visits, physiotherapy, speech therapy and more). 
• Maintain current long-term disability (LTD) language to protect current levels. 

Employer’s Position:  

• Will review our benefits but will not commit to increasing or improving them. 
• Wants to remove LTD language from our contract (meaning they can change our LTD benefits at any time). 

More Flexible Schedules 

The Problem: Right now, our requests for modified work weeks (outside of 5/5/4) are denied, and admin do not have any telework / remote work language enshrined in the collective agreement. 

Union-Proposed Solutions:  

• Hardwire modified work week options with a reasonableness standard into the agreement.  
• For Admin: A ban on Sunday work  
• For Admin: The right to telework for all Admin 

Employer's Position:  

• No commitment to a reasonableness standard for modified work week requests (giving the employer more discretion to deny our requests). 
• For Admin: Add Sunday work to the schedule for new employees with no premium pay  
• No right to telework for Admin. 

Workload Protections 

The Problem: Employees often work through breaks, lunches and regular hours to complete work, leading to burnout and stress. Managing workload is key to maintaining a healthy work-life balance and ensuring employee well-being. 

Union Proposed Solutions: Establish a workload definition and a reasonable threshold for investigating workload-related issues. 

Employer's Position: BC Housing wants to set a higher threshold for recognizing workload issues, which will allow for extended periods of overwork. We're closer now to agreement here in Maintenance than before the strike vote opened.  

Vote YES for a Strike 

Members have been asking for many of these improvements for years. If we do not secure them in this round, they will remain a bargaining issue, drawing out future rounds of negotiations and leading to more unnecessarily long periods where we are working without an up-to-date contract. 

One of the reasons that we’ve never secured these proposals in the past was because we did not fight for them. This time is different. We have the power to demand better by voting in favour of a strike.