With the ongoing shortage of corrections officers & sheriffs province-wide and within your own workplace, your Component 1 Executive wants to remind all members of their right to refuse overtime as well as the contractual obligation on the employer to provide you with both a meal and coffee breaks.

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At a rally held yesterday morning at WorkSafeBC headquarters in Richmond, BCGEU members sent a message to WorkSafeBC that something needs to be done to address the increasing violence in BC’s prisons.

You are invited to join us in sending a message to WorkSafe that Prison Violence Hurts Us All!

The BCGEU continues to monitor the impacts of the decision of the Government to change the benefit carrier for all public service employees to ensure your benefits are protected. As of April 1, Great West Life – GWL is now the benefit carrier for the BC Public Service.
 
Here are three issues we have addressed this week and we will update further as needed.
 
1.     Deductible
 
Members had reported that while we had been told that member information would be shared with the new carrier, in some cases this did not occur. This meant that some members were told that they would have to pay another deductible until this was resolved. In order to prevent this, the BCGEU and the Public Service Agency have agreed to the following:
 
The extended health deductible will be waived by the new carrier, Great West Life, during the transitionary period until all claims information is loaded into the GWL’s system.  This will prevent an employee from double-paying their deductible and needing to receive a refund at a later date if GWL does not have the most up to date claims information.  The final claims load is anticipated to be complete by the end of July. Once all of the claims information has been loaded into GWL’s system, any outstanding deductible amounts will be assessed and required to be satisfied from future claims.  Any outstanding deductible amounts at the end of the calendar year will carry forward into the next year if an employee was reimbursed for expenses but did not satisfy the deductible within the current plan year.
 
This agreement should ensure that members are not out of pocket for more than the agreed to deductible for their benefits.
 
2.     Special Drug Authorities
 
In some circumstances the carriers need special drug authorities to approve payment of some drugs. We understand that members will need to provide GWL with any special authority approvals they had previously received and provided to Pacific Blue Cross, and any new special authorities received from now until the process has been finalized with GWL.
 
Currently, there is a 90-day grace period from the new carrier and the BCGEU is monitoring this transition. Questions about special drug authorities can be directed to Health Insurance BC. They are available by phone:
 
From the Lower Mainland, call 604 683-7151
From the rest of B.C., call toll-free 1 800 663-7100
For questions about PharmaCare, Customer Service Representatives are available:

(March 2017 Article)

As the Okanagan Correctional Centre eases the issue of overcrowded prisons, the president of the province’s prison guard union toured the facility last week to make sure cost-cutting measures aren’t compromising anybody’s safety.

(March 2017 Article)

An investigation is underway after an incident at the Kamloops Law Courts landed four deputy sheriffs and a prisoner in hospital.

The BCGEU was not invited to participate in the decision to change benefit carriers, but we have monitored progress on your behalf to ensure your benefits are protected. We have been assured by government there is no change in coverage, and will continue to verify this is the case.

BCGEU members covered by the Public Service Agreement can now download the 2017 BCGEU Salary Grids in PDF format from the BCGEU web site. https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/bcgeu/pages/13671/attachments/original/1601599786/BCGEU_2017xApril2.pdf?1601599786