Nursing care workers at CapitalCare have a tentative agreement!
Your negotiating team reached a tentative agreement late Friday, October 14, with the assistance of our mediator.
Below are some of the key changes in this new tentative agreement.
Tentative agreement highlights
Collective agreement covering 4 years, 2020 – 2023.
Wage increases:
• July 1, 2020 - 0%
• Jan 1, 2021 - 1%
• Dec 1, 2022 - 1.25%
• July 1, 2023 - 2%
• A 2% long service increase, effective July 1, 2023.
Ratifying (accepting) this tentative agreement would also come with a 1% lump sum for hours you worked from January 1, 2021 - December 31, 2021. This money would be paid within 60 days of ratification, in recognition of your work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Benefits
Changes include increased coverage for your medical notes, from $30.00 to $40.00. You will also now have 2 hours for medical appointment time.
Much of your Supplementary Benefits Plan will be changed. This will take place on the first day of the first month 90 days after ratification. Here is how the plan will change:
- Coverage for a Chartered Psychologist/Master of Social Work/Addictions Counsellor will be changed to eliminate the per-visit and 20 visit per year maximums. Instead, there will be a new combined maximum of $3000.00 per participant per benefit year;
- You will no longer need a doctor’s note for compression stockings. There will be a new fee guide for compression stockings and reimbursed at either the Alberta Blue Cross Usual or Customary rates, whichever is greater:
- Compression stockings with a pressure gradient of less than 20 mmHg will be reimbursed to a maximum of $68.75/pair;
- Compression stockings with a pressure gradient between 20-29.99 mmHg will be reimbursed to a maximum of $218.75/pair; and
- Compression stockings with a pressure gradient greater than 30 mmHg will be reimbursed to a maximum of $250.00/pair.
More improvements
Registration fees for Licensed Practical Nurses will change: your eligibility will go from 809 hours to 720 hours.
If the employer calls you into an investigation meeting, they must disclose the concern that required the investigation.
Discipline will be removed from your file 18 months after it took place, instead of 2 years. Absences from work of 30 days or more will not be counted as part of the 18 months.
The employer will have a new policy for recognizing violence in the workplace, as well as for recording violence.
If you are approved to attend AUPE Convention or Labour School during a vacation period, the time you spend at Convention or Labour School will be counted as leave for Union business, not vacation. The employer will also consider your requests to reschedule vacation so that you may take time for Union business for other reasons.
When current Casual Employees are competing for Full or Part-Time employment, seniority will be the deciding factor if the employer considers both employees to be equal in qualifications.
If Capital Care introduces a system with extended workdays in new nursing units, this would result in a compressed work week. For the purpose of this clause, a new nursing unit is defined as a unit that does not have an existing schedule.
We will also create a Joint Workplace Committee with the employer.
Voting info coming soon
Your negotiating team will let you know when we have more details for voting on this tentative agreement.
Later this week, we will share posters that you can download, print, and share at your workplace. These posters will have voting information on them, so keep your eyes open!
If you have any questions, please contact your negotiating team or AUPE resource staff.
AUPE NEGOTIATING TEAM – CAPITAL CARE GROUP NURSING CARE
Rhea Coughlan coughlanrheasteve@gmail.com
Agnes Otayde vinleanes@shaw.ca
Tanja Brook tkbrook@shaw.ca
Elizabeth Csernyanski mikelizy@shaw.ca
Mhedee Martinez-Rowe mhedee@shaw.ca
AUPE RESOURCE STAFF
Chris Dickson Negotiations c.dickson@aupe.org
Tracy Noble Organizing t.noble@aupe.org
Mimi Williams Communications m.williams@aupe.org