Despite our disappointment, a collective agreement is now in place and we will fight to enforce its language
After months of waiting for the arbitrator’s decision, it has arrived. While there are some positive outcomes, your negotiating team is overall very disappointed with what has been awarded to the workers of Revera OPH.
What we argued in April was that workers’ experience during the Covid-19 pandemic, current short staffing in health care, rising inflation, the current economic situation, government surplus and very low unemployment must form a basis for an arbitrator’s decisions about the appropriate awards for this work.
This decision, however, focusses primarily on awarding salaries similar to those of existing agreements already in place at other Revera worksites. But even by this standard, it falls short, as our proposal of a large salary increase after five years of employment – which is precedented in the collective agreement at Revera River Ridge – was denied.
Some areas of the agreement, like seniority, do demonstrate modest improvements. Other areas – like language ensuring workers are paid for breaks if they are expected to remain available for recall – are at least standard. As health care employers are often known to ignore provisions like these, your negotiating team is prepared to fight to enforce this language if need be.
We are encouraged by the fact that an agreement is now in place that the new employer will have to recognize. This will mitigate much of the uncertainty surrounding the sale of OPH to Cogir.
At the end of this long process, we remain thankful to the members and worksite negotiating team for their determination throughout, and impressed by the testimony they gave at the hearings about their working conditions. It is vindicating that this testimony is now on public, legal record in these arbitration decisions. This testimony offers a dignified and accurate representation of what the reality is for workers in health care.
A summary of the agreement is below.
Seniority
Seniority for regular employees will be determined by date of hire (not hours worked) and backdated to original hire date if transferring from a casual/temporary to a regular position. This will include pre-certification hours with Revera, but not prior service with Christenson (though the latter could be used as a tiebreaker).
Premiums
LPN/HCA:
*where majority of hours are worked during the below periods
- Weekday evening - $2.25 premium
- Weekday night - $3.25 premium
- Weekend day - $2.25 premium
- Weekend evening - $2.50 premium
- Weekend night - $3.25 premium
OTHER:
*all hours worked in the below periods
- Evening/night (7pm-7am) - $1.00 premium
- Weekend - $1.50 premium
Vacation
Based on date of hire, vacation days accrue as follows:
(Note: This has to be converted to date of hire from hours worked for prior service as well as pre-award service)
- 1-4 years – 4% (10 days)
- 5-7 years – 6% (15 days)
- 8+ years – 8% (20 days)
Days cannot be banked for part-time employees.
Benefits
Current benefits stay the same.
RRSP
Effective December 31, 2023, the employer will match employee contributions up to 2% of regular earnings.
Wage increases
- January 1, 2022 –1.75% (all classifications)
- January 1, 2023 – additional $0.25 for HCAs plus 1.25%
In a few short months we will be back to bargaining to fight for the improvements that weren’t achieved in this round.
What this decision fails to recognize is that OPH and other similar worksites are already seeing high turnover in their staff, and we can expect that this result will further destabilize the staffing situation in these settings.
We expect that many members will be very disappointed with this outcome. For those who may decide to leave following this result, we are asking that you please reach out to a member of the negotiating team to let us know what brought you to take that action.
A copy of the arbitrator’s decision is attached to this update.
AUPE NEGOTIATING TEAM - REVERA OUR PARENTS’ HOME
Zeus Ng
zeus_ng@mail.com or 780-710-1539 (cell)
Jennifer To
jenniferjj.to@gmail.com or 780-709-3812 (cell)
Renalene Zarate
norlhen.lc@gmail.com or 587-873-3824 (cell)
AUPE RESOURCE STAFF
Merryn Edwards, Negotiations
m.edwards@aupe.org - 780-952-1951
Guy Quenneville, Membership Services Officer
g.quenneville@aupe.org - 780-237-8253
Michelle Szalynski, Organizing
m.szalynski@aupe.org 403-634-8262
Communications
co@aupe.org