Following our last round of bargaining, work began to modernize the classification system that determines your pay. While this work will continue into 2025, below is an update on the transition to the new classification system for Health Science Professionals. 

Highlights: 

• The new profile-based classification system will be implemented on December 6, 2024.  
• Implementation will not change your wages if, like most members, your job is matched to the P1 Working Professional profile.  
• Implementation will change the wages for jobs matched to P2A, P2B, and S1 – S4 profiles – here are the wage rates. 

What is implementation? 

Implementation means that all Health Science Professional jobs will move from being classified and paid under the old classification system (e.g. grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, etc.) to being classified and paid under the new profile-based classification system (e.g. P1, P2A, P2B, S1 to S4). Your pay increment step and anniversary date will not change as a part of this transition.

This is good news because it will mean we’ve completed the years-long work of updating the classification system to ensure that all Health Science Professionals, in all 70+ professions, receive equitable classification recognition for the scope and level of work that they do.

If your job is matched to the P1 Working Professional profile, like the majority of BCGEU members, you won’t see much of a change. You’ve been paid at the new P1 rate since April 1, 2024.

If your job is matched to a different profile (P2A, P2B, or S1 – S4), the salary structure of your job will likely change. The new rates are retroactive to April 1, 2024. If your job’s new rate is higher than your current rate, you will see that increase reflected on your December 6, 2024, pay statement. Further, the employer has agreed to provide retro pay by February 28, 2025.

Some jobs in the P2A, P2B and S1 – S4 profiles will have a new wage rate that is lower than members’ current wage rates. These members will be “green circled” which means that they will continue being paid at their current rate, and receive all future general wage increases, for as long as they remain in the same position, i.e. they do not move to the new lower pay rate of their job. Affected members will receive written notification of green circling from the employer prior to implementation.

Wages 

To see the wage schedules that will come into effect at implementation, please click here.

I think my job has been matched to the wrong profile 

As part of preparation for implementation, job classifications have been reviewed both by classifications staff in the BCGEU’s negotiations department and, as part of 2023’s classification review, by all members working in a regular position. 

Once the new profile-based classification system is implemented this December, members who believe that their jobs have been matched to the wrong profile will be able, with assistance from an HSP steward, to file classification grievances to correct their profile match. If you are unsure who your steward is, please contact your area office. 

Improvements

Change is hard and, understandably, some folks are finding this transitional period stressful. We thought it might help to remember why this is happening: our current classification system has long needed to be modernized.

The new profile-based system will finally give all Health Science Professionals, in all 70+ professions, equitable recognition for the scope and level of work that they do. For example, in the current classification system there are only three professions with a special procedures/techniques classification; in the new system, every profession can have special procedures/techniques recognized and paid at the P2A rate.

Another example is how under the current classification system, some professions have no supervisory classification, others have one supervisor classification, and other professions have between two and seven different supervisory levels. Under the new system, each profession will have the same number of supervisory levels.

The new classification system is uniform across professions and significantly simpler and more streamlined, which will make it easier for you to understand how your job is classified.

There will be challenges whenever something this complex is implemented, and we anticipated there would be bumps along the way. Some professions are facing especially difficult changes, and BCGEU is advocating for solutions to the special issues confronting them.

Not surprisingly, some members feel the employer has failed to match them to the correct job profile of the new classification system. If that’s you, BCGEU is here to help you through the process of sorting that out through classification grievances once the new system is implemented as of December 6, 2024.

More information

To learn more about the new profile-based classification, please visit the BCGEU website to see the FAQ.

If you can’t find the answer to your question, please email [email protected].

In solidarity,

Mahen Ramdharry 
BCGEU vice-president Health Services (Component 4) 


PS. Have you seen the new HSP brochure? Download it here for helpful links, information and contacts. (PDF) 


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