What's in the Component 6 Agreement?

On November 13, BCGEU members of Component 6 ratified their tentative component agreement. Of the eligible members that voted, 91.5% voted in favour of ratifying.

A PDF of the Component 6 tentative agreement is available here. (Please note: this is a draft document and there may be minor errors that will be updated throughout the process.) 

Highlights

In this round of bargaining, your component bargaining committee was able to make some very small gains:

• Renewed existing applicable Appendices and Letters of Intent
• Added one new Memorandum of Understanding for Community Corrections to continue discussing the lateral transfer process
• Expanded some Seniority Units in Appendix 2 for Auxiliary employees, a change that begins to reflect a better application of the recall locations

For full details of the tentative Component 6 Agreement, review the Memorandum of Settlement.

Summary of this bargaining round

This round of bargaining with the employer was frustrating. Throughout the process, your bargaining committee clearly and repeatedly communicated the following to the employer:

• your continued and seamless efforts to keep the province’s most vulnerable people safe and accessing services in the most difficult times;
• your needs for more support, a commitment from the employer for better communication, and a seat at the Social Program Officers policy compliance decision-making table;
• the number of members leaving the public service, the additional workload this creates for remaining members, and your desire to work with the employer to resolve these retention and recruitment challenges.

Despite this, the employer did the following:

• wouldn’t budge on issues such as the importance of having a First Nations acknowledgement in our Component Agreement;
• was adamant that they saw no need for Component 6 members to be involved in the committees responsible for implementing recommended solutions in the “No Time to Wait: A Review of MCFD’s Child Welfare Workforce” reports, despite members’ contribution to these reports;
• refused to partner with workers on the development of the Social Program Officer workload measurement, analysis and management tools.

Overall, the employer came to the table unprepared and unwilling to do any real bargaining, leaving the impression that they felt no real urgency or consequences to not meeting the needs of Component 6 members.

Why vote yes to ratify our Component Agreement

Despite a frustrating bargaining process, the gains your bargaining committee did make are important and notable. We are recommending that you vote yes to ratify the tentative 20th Social, Information and Health Component Agreement.