Member Update RE: Recent Arbitration Awards  July 2022

July 18, 2022
News Provincial News

July 15, 2022
Dear :
On June 28 and July 11, 2022, the parties concluded two days of arbitrations surrounding the outstanding Collective Agreement provisions to meet or exceed the standards set out in the Employment Standards Act (ESA). Some significant decisions were awarded to the union after days of testimony and months of research and work. The following outcomes are listed below:

  1. Training on Days Off (Article 23.02(d)):

  • Other required in-service training attended on days off shall be paid in accordance with Article 16, with the employee having the option to take compensation in either pay or mutually agreed to time off.
  • All training on days off will be paid at applicable overtime rates

  1. Work Allocation (Article E3.06-E3.11):

  • Has been rewritten to allow the Employer to maximize straight time hours before moving to required Overtime for Full-time, Regular Part-time and on-call employees.
  • A key note of importance in article E3.09 (a) and (b) is the Employer’s obligation to schedule Overtime and Callout on overtime rates

  1. Definition of a “Day” for the purposes of Cumulative Daily Overtime (Article 16.04 and E7.04):

•      “Day” will be defined as a 24-hour period beginning at the start of an employee’s shift (including a Kilo shift during which the employee receives a callout) and subject to the following:
•      If an employee is clear from work and/or Kilo coverage for eight (8) hours, hours worked after the eight (8) hours clear will be deemed to fall within a new day;
•      Days will not overlap, so that hours worked may only be attributed to one 24-hour period. In the event that hours worked could be attributed to two different 24-hour periods, they will be attributed to the earlier of the two  Hours worked after the end of that earlier 24-hour day will be attributed to a subsequent day; and
·       In the event that an employee is required to continue working on a callout or a shift that is extended to run past the end of a day, as defined above, those hours of continued work will be attributed to the day in which the callout or extended shift began.
·       On-call employees will be entitled to overtime at one and one-half (1.5) times their hourly rate of pay for all hours worked in a day that exceed eight (8) hours or their regularly scheduled shift on that day, whichever is longer.
·       On-call employees will attract overtime at two (2) times the regular hourly rate of pay for all hours worked in a day that exceed twelve (12) cumulative hours.

In regard to the ESA matters submitted to arbitration under Appendix 22 to Vince Ready and Corinn Bell, the following provides a brief update on the award:

  1. Banked Overtime

  • For each hour of one-and-one-half-time (1.5) overtime worked and banked, the employee will be paid out one-half (0.5) hour of straight-time pay. For each hour of double-time (2) overtime worked and banked, the employee will be paid out one (1) hour of straight-time pay.
  • For members, this means with a full CTO bank, you will now retain an additional $2,547.36 annually (PCP-IV 3yrs) and will no longer pay for a CTO day out of your pocket

  1. Overtime on Callouts: (Inclusive of SOC)

  • For Full-time, Regular Part-time and On-call employees, Callouts lasting less than 4 hours will accrue overtime pay (when applicable) only for the hours while under the direction of the Employer not for the entire 4 hours,
    • As an example, if you are full-time working a callout shift, if the callout takes 2 hours, you receive 2 hours of OT and 2 hours of straight time.

  1. Statutory Holiday Callouts

  • All statutory holiday callout hours will be paid at the applicable statutory holiday rate of pay in accordance with the current practice.
  • Specifically, this means that regardless of the length of the callout, under the direction of the Employer the entire 4-hour callout is paid at double time, just as it is now.

  1. SOC Daily Cumulative Overtime

  • SOC employees are entitled to overtime at 1.5x for all hours worked in excess of eight hours in a day and to 2x for all hours worked in excess of 12 hours in a day.
  • This is a significant change for SOC members. You now attract cumulative OT for any callout hours worked after their 8-hour Regular scheduled hours. You no longer have to work 12 hours in a 24-hour period

  1. Payment of wages for DOSH work

  • DOSH work will now be considered hours worked
  • If DOSH work is completed on a day off, it will be paid at applicable overtime rates

On March 15, the union learned BCEHS did not have the appropriate systems in place to ensure payroll programming occurred for the implementation of double-time overtime pay for our members. Even with years to prepare, it was clear that this would not be set up for April 1, 2022. The union brought the matter to expedited arbitration regarding the failure of the Employer to execute the terms of Appendix 22 by April 1, 2022, and the failure to pay double-time on all required hours.

These matters were put before arbitrator Dalton Larson on July 11, 2022, with the following outcomes in the award:

a)     A declaration that the Employer did not pay double-time overtime for all hours of work in excess of 12 hours in one shift while the parties negotiated further collective agreement changes relating to daily overtime rates, which amounted to a breach of Appendix 22 to the collective agreement, Article 16.01, and Schedule E7.00.

b)     An order that all employees affected by the Employer’s breaches be made whole, including interest at the rate of 2% per annum.

c)     An order that the Employer commence payment of double-time overtime as required in the collective agreement on a go-forward basis no later than August 12, 2022;

d)     An order that the employer issue all retroactive payments no later than August 26, 2022

e)     An order that no later than August 26, 2022, the Employer provide a report to the union showing how the employees’ retroactive payment amounts were arrived at (i.e. the underlying calculations).

Copies of the above awards can be found in their entirety HERE.

The union has worked as expeditiously as possible to resolve these matters and is pleased to report that as of August 26, 2022, all members should have all monies owed to them, including interest on all Double-Time Overtime monies.

Please feel free to contact me with any further questions.

In solidarity,

Jason Jackson
Provincial Vice President
Ambulance Paramedics of BC/CUPE 873

Please click HERE to view PDF version of this message.

JJ/km/MoveUp