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Your BCGEU bargaining committee for Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society is pleased to report that it has reached a tentative agreement with the Employer. This agreement provides significant gains for employees, and your bargaining committee strongly and unanimously encourages you to vote "yes" to accept it.

Monetary highlights include:

• Contract term of roughly 2.5 years, ending June 30, 2027
• New and improved shift premiums for night, evening, and weekend shifts:
  o Night shift premium increased to $2.50/hour (up from $1.00/hour) and extended to apply to all positions
  o Weekend shift premium of $0.50/hour extended to apply to all classifications
  o New evening premium of $0.25/hour for all classifications
  o Shift premiums will now pyramid, meaning an employee working on the weekend and earning the weekend shift premium would also earn the evening or night shift premium if they qualify

• More days of annual vacation for employees with 10 or more years' service-tops out at 25 days after 15 years, which is an increase of five days (beginning in 2026)
• New paid special leave of up to 45 hours per year, equivalent to six days for employees who work 7.5 hours/day:
  o Up to two days of special leave per year may be used for wellness leave, which is discretionary personal leave
  o Special leave may also be used in case of serious household or domestic emergency

• Health and welfare benefit plan improvements (beginning no later than April 1, 2025):
  o Employer will pay 100% of benefit plan premiums, including for long-term disability (currently pays 80% for full time, 50% for part time, and nothing for long-term disability)
  o Prescription drug coverage increased to 100% for full-time employees (up from 80%), and the annual maximum for full-time and part-time is increased to $10,000 per person (up from $4,000)
  o Paramedical coverage increased to $750 per category (up from $500 per category)
  o Vision care coverage for eyeglasses and lenses increased to $300 every 24 months (up from $200)
  o Dental plan improvements:
      § Separate annual maximums of $1,500 for basic/preventative and major restorative dental
        (up from $1,500 combined)
      § New orthodontic coverage with $1,500 lifetime maximum
      § For full-time employees, major restorative coverage increased to 80% (up from 50%), and new
         orthodontic coverage at 50%
      § For part-time employees, basic/preventative coverage increased to 80% (up from 60%), major
         restorative coverage increased to 60% (up from 50%), and new orthodontic coverage at 30%
• Wage increases of 2.5% in 2025 and 2026 for HUGS program employees (all other employees are wage levelled to the health authority wage rates and will receive 2025 and 2026 wage increases based on what is negotiated for the public health sectoral agreements)
• The Employer will continue paying health and welfare benefit premiums when an employee is off work and receiving wage loss benefits from WorkSafeBC (currently an employee on WorkSafeBC benefits must pay the premiums to continue health and welfare benefits)
• Employees who are regularly scheduled for less than 20 hours/week are converted from casual employee status to part-time regular employee status (the Employer is already in the process of making this change)
• Minimum two hours' pay at overtime rates when an employee is called back to work after the end of their shift

Non-monetary highlights include:

• If the Employer makes significant schedule changes, employees will get to pick their preferred shift in order of seniority
• Disciplinary documents will be automatically removed from an employee's file after 24 months, or 36 months in case of resident abuse
• Seniority will be a factor in the initial assessment of applications for jobs/promotions, in addition to being the tiebreaker when applicants are relatively equal
• A joint labour/management committee composed of union representatives and employer representatives that will meet regularly to discuss issues and concerns, including workload issues referred to it by employees
• Strong occupational health and safety language
• Strong human rights, harassment, and bullying language, including for abuse of authority
• Strong prohibitions against contracting out and performance of work by volunteers, with limited exceptions
• Grievance and arbitration processes through which employees and the Union can challenge the Employer for alleged violations of the collective agreement
• Employees may be represented by a union steward in investigative and disciplinary meetings
• Restrictions on use of electronic surveillance

Again, your bargaining committee encourages you to vote "yes" to ratify this tentative agreement.

We will send a complete ratification document and information on the ratification information meeting and vote early next week.

In solidarity,

Pinky Rose Mateo, Bargaining Committee Chair
Yumiko Turco, Bargaining Committee Member
Satomi Yoneda, Bargaining Committee Member
Ryan Stewart, Staff Representative, Negotiations Department

Download PDF of bulletin here

UWU/MoveUP

Updated: December 4, 2024