Representatives of the Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA) and health employers continue their work to implement the historic multi-agreement wage restoration plan.
"This plan will see $60.5 million in new wage adjustments over the term of the current contract in addition to the annual general wage increases,” says HEU secretary-business manager and FBA lead negotiator Lynn Bueckert. “What the FBA is working through now is how the wage restoration fund will be allocated to members over the first two years of the renewed FBA contract.”
Since the winter, FBA and Health Employers Association of British Columbia (HEABC) representatives have taken steps to begin negotiations to allocate permanent wage grid adjustments onto the wage schedules, effective the first pay period after April 1, 2025, and April 1, 2026. This work around the process of negotiations was originally to be completed by June 30, however, more remains to be done to determine the first two wage adjustments.
"The FBA is pressing the employer to provide wage data to enable the parties to mutually determine wage grid adjustments,” says Bueckert. “Determining how the fund is distributed throughout the wage grid is a detailed and comprehensive process, involving joint agreement on the broad approach to adjustments with employers.”
Should the process result in a dispute, both parties have agreed that arbitrator Jacquie de Aguayo may act as an impartial third party and decide matters on an expedited basis.
During the 2022-2025 collective agreement, de Aguayo assisted the parties with resolving wage comparability disputes. She was previously chair of the B.C. Labour Relations Board, and before that she served as HEU’s assistant secretary-business manager.