Lima Shift Update / Irreg Owed Hours

Dear Members; 

As most of you are aware, in March of 2017, BCEHS enacted a scheduling trial called “Lima Shift”.  The intent of the trial was to ensure there were staff available each shift for book off vacancies.

Within 3 months of the Employer commencing the Lima Shift trial the Union began to see significant changes to fair and equitable allotments of work and deviation from the Collective Agreement.

The most notable member impact was to our Irregularly scheduled Full-time members in the Vancouver post. FT Irreg members were often being scheduled into shifts shorter than 12 hours in duration, and then forced to work extra night shifts to make up “owed hours”. This meant sometimes working 6 days straight with only 2 days off before their next block. This scheduling practice also contravened the Employers commitment during the transition to UHR to make every effort to schedule FT Irreg employees into 12-hour shifts.

The Union filed a policy grievance against the Employer’s unilateral changes to scheduling practice and subsequently met with Arbitrator Chris Sullivan on July 5, 2018.

Arbitrator Sullivan has ordered BCEHS to forgive all hours owed by irregularly scheduled employees it schedules for shifts shorter than 12 hours, until such time as a hearing is held on the merits of the Union’s grievance in October 2018. This hearing may be convened on a weekend during that month.

A copy of the full order can be seen HERE. 

For Your Action:

If you’re a full-time irregularly scheduled employee, who is currently scheduled to work a shift in repayment of “owed hours”, you should contact the Employer (supervisor or scheduling department) to confirm you no longer owe those hours and are no longer scheduled for the shift.

If you are directed to work “owed hours”, or the Employer attempts to schedule you into a new make-up shift, follow the Employers direction and contact your RVP immediately.

We will continue to work with the Employer and Arbitrator Sullivan to ensure the inconsistencies in scheduling practices are corrected. Please stay tuned for further updates on this issue.

Sincerely,

Please click HERE to view a PDF version of this message.

DD/sd/MoveUp