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Health unions reach tentative agreement

Contract includes pay increases

A five-year tentative settlement has been reached for health care workers in the province.

The multi-union Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA), representing 47,000 health care workers, reached the agreement with Health Employers’ Association of BC with the help of mediator Vince Ready.

“The health care workers covered by this tentative agreement play a crucial role in keeping our health care system functioning and it will ensure British Columbians who need medical care receive it in a timely and effective manner in a safe environment,” said Terry Lake, BC minister of health.

The FBA bargaining committee as well as the board of the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU), the largest of the 11 unions being represented in the FBA, are recommending that the contract be ratified by their workers.

This collective agreement includes workers in hospitals, residential care facilities, emergency health services and logistics and supply operations. The deal will affect about 380 employees in Powell River.

Rob Southcott, a BC Ambulance Service paramedic and unit chief for Powell River, said it addresses some of his concerns.

“By and large [the agreement] looks pretty good,” said Southcott.

The paramedics’ part of the agreement has been kept separate to the larger agreement because of the high number of part-time paramedics, he said.

“Over the course of five years it’s not a huge win,” he added, “but it’s better than zero, which we’ve had in many years in the past decade or two.”

Fourteen of the 18 paramedics who work from the Powell River station work part time, and have to find another way to supplement their wages, he said. The changes in the contract, a universal hourly rate, will bring parity of wages for part-timers, he added. Health benefits will also be extended to include part-time staff.

A community paramedic program, included in the deal, may open the door for more full-time jobs for paramedics to assist in long-term care facilities and support community health nurses.

In past years, paramedics from the Powell River station have worked at Powell River General Hospital in the emergency room and assisted nursing staff. Southcott said that this additional experience helps further develop clinical skills for paramedics and improves service to the community.

The overall deal includes 5.5 per cent general wage increases over the agreement’s five -year term, limits contracting out, expands employment options and protects benefits.

“Health care workers signalled clearly that they were determined to protect jobs and improve working and care conditions,” said Bonnie Pearson, HEU secretary treasurer and spokesperson. “This agreement meets those conditions and provides a measure of stability and certainty in a health care system that’s under considerable stress.”