Our apologies to our members working at single site locations that are not publicly funded. In our bulletin last week about pandemic pay we had said that all workers would be receiving pandemic pay and that is sadly not the case. 

The BCGEU has been lobbying the government from the beginning to apply the pandemic pay to all workers who provide direct care and we have not yet achieved that outcome. 

Currently the pandemic pay is available only to those workers who provide publicly funded services. The best available information on this is from HEABC's recent bulletin on this topic quoted below: 

Q: Are employees whose role is funded in whole or in part by non-provincial government funding such as resident fees, charities, grants, foundations eligible? 

A: If the facility is a provincially-funded health or community social service facility, employees may be eligible. Pandemic Pay funding will be proportionate to the funding the employer receives from the provincial government. Co-payments made by residents of provincially funded beds will be considered provincial government funding for the purposes of calculating Pandemic Pay funding for the $4 per hour benefit. Unlicensed residence workers will qualify assuming they are in job types that match our criteria.

Q: Are workers in assisted living facilities eligible? 

A: If the facility is a provincially-funded health facility, they are eligible. Funding will be proportionate to the funding the employer receives from the provincial government. Eligible frontline workers in assisted living facilities will qualify (typical occupations are residence workers and community support workers).
The BCGEU continues to work to get the pandemic pay premium applied to all workers who provide direct care and will be working to ensure that the distribution to eligible workers happens according to the rules the government set.

The BCGEU continues to work to get the pandemic pay premium applied to all workers who provide direct care and will be working to ensure that the distribution to eligible workers happens according to the rules the government set.

UWU/MoveUP