The Community Social Services bargaining committee has been hard at work at the negotiations table with the employers’ association ensuring that CSS members’ priorities are heard. Negotiations will now take a break until the next round of talks on the week of June 20th.
Here are some answers to frequently asked questions:
What is the Community Social Services Bargaining Association (CSSBA) and the Community Social Services Employers Association (CSSEA)?
The Community Social Services Bargaining Association (CSSBA) represents unionized workers in the community social services sector. The Community Social Services Employers Association (CSSEA) represents the employers. The CSSBA bargaining committee and is made up of union members and representatives of nine unions. The committee is tasked with negotiating the new terms of a collective agreement for over 17,000 unionized community social services workers employed in every community across the province. The CSSBA bargaining committee sits across the table with the CSSEA bargaining committee, which represents over 200 community social services employers across the province.
Who is covered by the CSS Main Agreement?
Within the Community Social Services sector, there are three subsectors - Indigenous Services, General Services, and Community Living Services. Improvements to all three collective agreements are negotiated at the main Community Social Services bargaining table.
Workers that are covered under the Indigenous Services agreement have unique and specific concerns and needs. In recognition of this, negotiations for the Indigenous Services agreement are underway at a separate and concurrent bargaining table.
The collective agreements for all three subsectors expired on March 31st, 2022. Terms and conditions of the agreements continue until new agreements are ratified. Bargaining commenced in February.
What is happening right now at the bargaining table?
The CSSBA bargaining committee and the CSSEA bargaining committee recently started to discuss monetary priorities. These are items that have a dollar value and are costed against a “total compensation envelope” that has been approved by the BC Government and presented to the CSSBA bargaining committee by the CSSEA bargaining committee. The CSSBA bargaining committee has the difficult task ahead to achieve a tentative deal that the majority of 17,000 CSS members in the province will ratify.
Bargaining is ongoing and the committees are back at the table on the week of June 20th.
Click to see all Community Social Services bargaining bulletins