In the 2022-2025 round of contract negotiations, the Community Social Services Bargaining Association (CSSBA) and the Community Social Services Employers’ Association (CSSEA) reached agreement on wage adjustments for paraprofessionals in the community social services sector to bring them closer to parity with their peers in the Health Science Processionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA).
In March 2024, the CSSBA lead union BCGEU reported that the parties had been unable to reach agreement on HSPBA comparability and discussions were continuing.
But recently, the parties came to an agreement that will bring significant increases to CSS paraprofessional classifications, in some cases retroactive to 2023, representing a big step toward parity with the HSPBA.
You can read complete details on the joint CSSBA/CSSEA summary of the changes, and the revised 2023 and 2024 wage grids in the PDF below.
Highlights include:
Retroactive to April 2023:
- 3.50 per cent wage increase for paraprofessional classifications in Grid 13-P, 14-P, 15-P, and 16-P.
- 3.79 per cent wage increase for the Step 4 rate for the Speech Language Pathologist Supervisor (Grid 18-P-SLP) classification.
- Layered-over paraprofessional supervisors without an existing benchmark will be paid at a rate of one additional grid or a minimum of eight per cent above the highest job supervised.
Retroactive to April 2024:
- 4.41 per cent wage increase for the Step 4 rate for the Occupational Therapist Supervisor (Grid 17-P-OT) and Physiotherapist Supervisor (Grid 17-P-PT) classifications.
- 4.12 per cent wage increase for the Step 4 rate for the Speech Language Pathologist Supervisor (Grid 18-P-SLP) classification.
- New supervisor benchmarks created for Infant Development Consultant Supervisor (Grid 15-P-IDC) and Supportive Child Development Consultant Supervisor (Grid 15-P-SCDC) classifications, with Step 4 rates matching the top rate of the April 2024 HSPBA wage schedule.
While available funding was insufficient to align all CSSEA/CSSBA paraprofessional classifications up to the HSPBA target rates, the classifications that remain below their target rates are 13-P, 14-P and 15-P.
The CSSBA remains proud of the heath sector comparability adjustments gained in the last round of bargaining, and remains committed to fully closing the remaining gaps to achieve equitable wages.