BCGEU's Cross Component Committee is hosting Education Courses May 3, 2014

A reminder to all members who receive reimbursement for professional fees per Clause 27.26 of the 17th Master agreement. Effective April 1, 2014, all members are eligible to claim the 2013 rate for professional fees for the 2014 calendar year.

The following bulletin will only affect members with Extended Health and Dental coverage through Pacific Blue Cross.

Representatives of the BCGEU met  yesterday with Suzanne Anton, Attorney General and Minister of Justice in Victoria. 

A meeting took place on February 14 in Victoria with the Court Services on issues of mutual concern, in particular, issues relating to Sheriff Services.  Attending the meeting were senior representatives of Sheriff Services including ADM Kevin Jardine and also Paul Corrado. Representing the  BCGEU were Component 1 Chair Dean Purdy, Director of Negotiations David Vipond and BCGEU Regional Coordinator Mike Eso.

At the last round of Component 1 Corrections & Sheriff Services bargaining, the bargaining committee was able to negotiate new language for Adult Custody part-time, regular staff. The Component Executive will be finalizing the changes to the letter of understanding. The new language in section 1 (b) (2) now states:

The BCGEU Classifications department and two members of the Component 1 executive (Dean Purdy, Component Chair and Brian Campbell, Component 2nd Vice Chair) have been working with Corrections Branch officials to create new benchmarks for Correctional Officers and Correctional Supervisors. Additionally, five members from the BC Sheriff's Service (Derrick Goodwin, Paul Dhillon, Jeff Mercer, Scott Van Der Ree and Roger Phillips) have been working with Ministry of Justice officials to create new benchmarks for Deputy Sheriffs, Sheriff Sergeants and Staff Sergeants. Benchmarks are detailed descriptions and ratings of each classification which are used to measure jobs in the Public Service Job Evaluation Plan.

February 25, 2014
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
BCGEU OFFICE (meeting room entrance at right rear of bldg.)
158 ORIOLE ROAD (VALLEYVIEW), KAMLOOPS

Members and BCGEU staff have been exploring ideas and suggestions about potential alternate uses for the underused capacity at the Victoria Youth Custody Centre (VYCC). There have been a range of options suggested.

As part of this exploration, we recently met with the Representative for Children and Youth. One of the topics of discussion was to look at the possibility for utilizing part of the VYCC for the creation of a unit to provide child and youth mental health services. The demand for child and youth mental health service is often exceeding available capacity at existing resources such as Ledger House. The Representative's office indicated an interest in being kept up to date as alternative uses for the centre are explored.

In order to move forward with an examination of alternatives, the union is drafting a brief that will be presented to government officials and other interested community stakeholders. The brief will include topics such as: