Interim Measures – Staffing – Effective October 22nd
Interim Measures – Staffing – Effective October 22nd
As you know, the union has been working hard to address the significant staffing shortages and reduce the number of out of service (OOS) units. With the support of the Ministry of Health, we have reached an agreement on temporary measures to mitigate and help increase our staffing.
The measures detailed will not address all our issues and are not intented as a long term fix; but it is a step in the right direction. We will continue to work with the MOH and BCEHS to ensure we are doing all we can to get through these critical times and explore opportunities for enhanced service delivery and staffing improvements. We continues to work at the bargaining table on the long-term issues, including wages, benefits, service delivery models, frontline supervision, and mental health and wellness.
In addition to this member update, a joint memo will be sent out by BCEHS (here)
As part of this solution, effective October 22, 2022, the on-call rate of pay will temporarily increase from $2 per hour to $12 per hour.
Given the challenges staffing evening and weekend shifts recently, we will also be moving to temporarily make any overtime worked on evenings and weekends paid out at the double-overtime rate, which will also be effective October 22, 2022.
Details from the temporary agreement are below and (here):
1) BC Emergency Health Services (the “Employer”) will immediately increase all $2.00 per hour pager pay from $2.00 to $12.00 per hour.
2) Employees working overtime hours between 1800 and 0600 will receive pay at two times the regular hourly rate of pay for the hours worked in this period.
3) Employees working shifts on overtime that have a start time after 1200 noon will receive pay at two times their regular hourly rate of pay for hours worked within those shifts.
4) Employees working overtime hours that fall between 0600 on a Friday and 0600 on the following Monday will receive pay at two times their regular hourly rate of pay for the hours worked in this period.
5) Any SOC shifts that remain unfilled at the time of monthly scheduling will be filled as if they are two separate Kilo shifts.
This agreement is in place until December 31st or the conclusion of the current round of bargaining. Given schedules have already been built, we encourage all employees who wish to add additional availability to do so ASAP.
Thank you for your patience and ongoing support. We are hopeful that these interim measures will help stabilize staffing
On behalf of your executive,
Troy Clifford
Provincial President
Ambulance Paramedics of BC
CUPE Local 873
TC/km/MoveUp