Securing measures to reduce and respond to crushing workloads, as well as advance solutions to ease pressures on health care workers was a priority for your bargaining committee when negotiating the 2022-2025 Facilities collective agreement.
Here’s the list of enhanced provisions in the renewed contract that address the workload crisis and its impacts:
Reducing Workload
Here are new measures to take on short-staffing, recruitment and retention challenges and the failure by employers to backfill vacancies:
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Heightened Staffing Levels - Employers have committed to adding 9.25 million additional staffing hours by the end of 2024, with 78 per cent of those hours to be devoted to new part-time and full-time positions.
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Increased Contract Enforcement - Under the renewed contract, the equivalent of 21 new, full-time shop stewards have been hired at larger worksites to enforce the collective agreement and protect members’ rights.
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Workload Prioritization - You can now ask your employer to prioritize work in any circumstance where workload is a concern, and if you work in direct patient care areas, the employer must provide a written process for work prioritization upon request.
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Expanded Scope of Regional Committees - The scope of regional workload committees has been expanded to include jointly reviewing information and discussing workload solutions such as regularization of work hours and prioritization of work, which can lead to the employer creating regular positions, adding hours to regular part-time positions, and creating float or vacation relief positions.
Expanding Benefits
The Joint Facilities Benefit Trust (JFBT), which is a board composed of an equal number of employer and union trustees, has been requested to assess additional enhancements to member benefits in two areas:
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Enhanced Extended Benefits - For members on long-term disability, the trust has been asked to assess increasing the coverage for extended health and dental benefit premiums from 50 per cent to 100 per cent.
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Enhancing Mental Health Benefits - In recognition of the growing mental health challenges for workers, the trust has been asked to assess ways to improve coverage for mental health.
Enhancing Supports for Ill or Disabled Workers
The Enhanced Disability Management Program (EDMP), which has assisted ill or injured workers so they may return to work in a safe and timely manner, has been improved in two ways:
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Expanding Capacity - Funding for the EDMP has been increased by 33 per cent to keep pace with the FBA’s growing membership.
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Extending EDMP to Casuals - The collective agreement was updated to affirm that members working in a casual capacity can self-refer to the EDMP.
This bulletin is part of a series of updates about the renewed Facilities collective agreement. Watch this space for future updates. If you have questions about any of these provisions, please contact your shop steward.