Member Questions submitted to contract2016@mahcp.ca
In No Particular Order
This list remains incomplete and will updated regularly.
Can you explain the Recruitment and Retention Commitment in more detail?
- This fund has a total of $3,000,000 that will be distributed to the 9 professional groups listed.
- $1,500,000 will be distributed in 2016 (for the period of April 1, 2016-March 31,2017) and the remaining $1,500,000 will be distributed April 1, 2017.
- The exact division of this fund for each specific group is yet to be determined by the committee within the time frame set out in the agreement.
- Increases will be applied to base salary, not a one-time payment or “bonus.”
- A rough count of members within these 9 groups is around 900 members. As a hypothetical example only, that would mean around $3,333.00 per member increase after the second “installment” on April 1, 2017. Keep in mind that this is the number of members only, actual EFT data will be shared with the committee and likely result in a somewhat higher per-EFT amount as there will be a certain portion who are part-time.
- The professions included in this group are a result of negotiations with the Employer based on their data related to the highest priority groups that require this attention. We had an even larger list, but in the end the committee had to agree to a list that will see a change that will be significant.
Can you explain how the Standardization works?
- The standardization fund allows us to deal with some groups with similar needs to the recruitment and retention groups but not as severe in the opinion of the Employer.
- This fund has a total of $1,000,000 to be divided among the listed groups and this will be finalized no later than September 30, 2016.
- Increases will be applied to base salary, not a one-time payment or “bonus.”
- This group has approximately 450 individual Members included, but the actual number of EFTs will be somewhat less than that depending on the amount of part time employees.
- Once again, there are many many more groups that we would have included but were unsuccessful in getting the employer to commit a large enough fund for us to be able to include more groups.
Can you explain the Retroactivity portion of the general increase?
- If the agreement is ratified, Members will receive a retroactive payment of 1.5% for 2014, and 1.5% for 2015. Our position is that this will be on all hours actually worked, including any standby pay which is related to your hourly wage.
- If you were on maternity leave and received the top-up to 97% of your wage, our position in this discussion will be that retroactivity should apply to that as well.
- Does not apply to shift premiums. The new premium rates will be effective April 1, 2016.
What was the Union asking for compared to what is in this offer?
- This is a very complicated question. Our last document to the employer prior to this final offer had a general increase that was significantly higher in each of the 4 years. To provide specifics here would not be very strategic in the event of a rejection and need to continue negotiating.
- Our last document did include a clause for the Northern Regional Health Authority that would see a non-compounding “Northern Adjustment “ of 5%. The Employer refused to include that in this final offer.
- We also were looking for significant special adjustments to attempt to bring the wages of many of our groups somewhere into a logical placement on national wage scales.
- We also wanted to ensure that there was no erosion of our Members’ rights that we were able to successfully fend off. Unfortunately, the nature of bargaining is that we had to give up some of our proposals in exchange. Many articles therefore will remain the same in intent and impact, even if some of the wording has changed slightly to see common language.
NRHA Northern Isolation / Remoteness Retention Allowance
- The date of payment of this allowance will change from April 1 to October 1 of each year beginning in 2015
- There will be a “transitional” payment of 50 % of the allowance made on September 30, 2015. (retroactive and on a separate cheque)
- Following this payment the new rates of $8000 for former Norman and $10,000 for former Burntwood will be applied and will be payable September 30, 2016 and each subsequent year.
If I see something in this offer that I would like applied to mine, can we have that happen?
- This offer cannot be altered at this point in time. It must be accepted or rejected as is.
- In the case of rejection we may be able to negotiate this kind of change, but typically unless there was a proposal in our initial position, it would be very difficult to introduce such changes.
- We would certainly be willing to argue for whatever it is that members would require in order for them to accept a new offer or tentative agreement following any rejections.
- If something has caught your attention and you think it would work for you, we also encourage you to take note of that desired change and submit it for the next round of bargaining.
Can you explain the new shift premiums?
- Evening Premium:
- If you are scheduled and work any hours between 6pm and midnight, the new shift premium ($1.75 per hour as of April 1, 2016) will be paid on any hours worked between the hours of 3 pm and midnight.
- This was worded this way to acknowledge the situation that if for example, a scheduled shift was to end at 6:15 the employer was required to pay the premium for the entire shift even though only 15 minutes was considered to be within the definition of “evening.”
- The final sentence was worded that way to include those scheduled to begin shifts in the range of 3 pm to 3:30 pm and end sometime just before midnight to be paid this premium as this is what an evening shift actually looks like.
- Night Premium
- This premium will increase to $2.50 per hour and we reluctantly accepted the following language for this to happen “an employee scheduled to work a shift where the majority of the hours fall between 2400 hours and 0600 hours shall be paid a premium of …”
- Once again, this language helps clarify that the original intent of the night premium was not to have it applied to shifts that may begin at 0530 for example.
- Weekend Premium
- This premium will increase to $2.00 per hour effective April 1, 2016.
- There is no change to the language or times related to this premium.
What percentage is required to accept or reject this offer?
- A majority is all that is required to ratify or reject the offer
- Members vote as a group according to Manitoba Labour Board Certificates
- There are 21 separate certificates covered by our central table agreements:
- Actionmargueritte
- Breast Health Clerical
- CCMB Electronics
- CCMB Radiation Therapy and Lab Technicians
- CCMB Medical Devices, Mould Room and Radiation Protection
- CCMB Lab Technologists
- CCMB Brandon
- CCMB Spiritual Care
- Community Therapy Services
- Concordia
- Deer Lodge Centre
- DSM (all sites)
- Health Sciences Centre
- Misericordia Health Centre
- Northern RHA
- Rehabilitation Centre for Children
- Seven Oaks General Hospital
- Boniface Hospital
- Victoria General Hospital
- WRHA – Corporate
- WRHA – Pharmacy
How does the “Me Too” clause work?
- The me too only applies to other union’s agreements that have the same expiry dates as ours (March 31, 2018) and who represent Professional / Technical employees.
- The agreements this would apply to are MGEU, UFCW and CUPE professional / technical and EMS components.
- I does not apply to the agreement between MAHCP and Dynacare. The larger increases members are referencing were intended to deal with the wage discrepancy between DSM and Dynacare.
Was the Special Message from the President meant to pressure members to accept the deal?
- That absolutely was not the intent of the letter. It was meant only as another piece of information for members to consider when casting their ballots. The decision remains in each member’s hands and we will take whatever next step the membership as a whole wish.