Outcome of Policy Grievance #18110015 – Regular Part-time UC UHR Pay

Re:      Outcome of Policy Grievance #18110015 – Regular Part-time Unit Chief UHR Pay

The Parties implemented the Universal Hourly Rate (“UHR”) pay scale as of April 2017. The UHR pay scale merged wage rate scales for each job classification and eliminated the Unit Chief monthly allowance.

For On-call Unit Chiefs, the UHR wage rate was implemented in two separate phases as per Schedule F. 

F5.00 stated that “[e]ffective the first pay period after April 1, 2017, the On-Call Unit Chief Allowance will continue at 50% of the monthly allowance value in addition to the 50% UHR Unit Chief Rate of pay for their appropriate qualification, classification, service and experience” and that “[e]ffective the first pay period after April 1, 2018, the On-Call Unit Chief Allowance will be replaced 100% by the Unit Chief UHR based on qualification, classification, service and experience.” 

For Regular Part-time employees, the UHR wage rate was implemented as of April 2017.

The Employer established Regular Part-time (RPT) positions in many stations or posts across the province. In some of these stations, the Unit Chief position was previously held by an On-call employee. Since the implementation of RPT positions, the Employer has awarded the Unit Chief position to the RPT employee, without a posting or selection process. Further, the Employer stated that these employees then hold two job statuses, RPT and On-call. The Employer was paying these employees two different rates of pay, depending on which day of the week they work. Employees were paid as a Primary Care Paramedic IV for the their RPT shifts, and a Primary Care Paramedic IV Unit Chief for other shifts and administrative call-outs. The compensation difference in most cases was over $4/hr. The employees were expected to wear rank, perform supervision and carry a supervisor cell phone while working their RPT shifts, without pay at that classification.         

The Union advanced a policy grievance on this matter and met with Arbitrator Ken Saunders on October 13 & 14, 2020. Please find the full settlement here: https://tinyurl.com/y2oncjf9

In short, the Parties came to the following settlement:

1)     The parties agree affected employees are all those employees who held Regular Part-time CP/ On-call Unit Chief positions and were not paid the Regular Part-time PCP IV-UC rate of pay for all hours worked.

2)     The Employer agrees to retroactively compensate all affected employees at the PCP IV-UC UHR rate of pay for all hours worked from the start of the first pay period after April 1, 2018 to January 9, 2020.

3)     The Employer agrees to retroactively and prospectively pay all affected employees any outstanding GWI and CP increase, effective the first pay period after April 1, 2019, as per paragraph 2 (a) and (c) of the September 3, 2019 Memorandum of Settlement. 

4)     The Employer agrees to pay $500 for each affected employee who held Regular Part-time CP/On-call Unit Chief positions in 2016 and 2017 to a maximum of $1000.

The Union anticipates payment of monies owed prior to December 30, 2020.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. 

Sincerely,

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JJ/sd/MoveUp