Special Officer Appointed - Transitional Bargaining
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees filed an application on March 22 to the Alberta Labour Relations Board requesting appointment of a special officer to assist the union and Alberta Health Services reach an agreement covering approximately 17,500 General Support Services employees.
AUPE and AHS have been in transitional talks since August 2009 for a consolidated GSS agreement, and while many items have been signed off, the parties have not been able to reach agreement on the total package.
Accordingly, in order to bring the negotiations to a satisfactory conclusion, AUPE has asked the Alberta Labour Relations Board to appoint the officer under the Regional Health Authority Collective Bargaining Amendment Regulations.
In May 2008, the Alberta health minister announced that Alberta intended to move to a single health region. The Health Governance Transition Amendment Act was introduced in October that year and took effect on April 1, 2009. Alberta Health Services became a legal entity on that day.
The consolidated agreement is required under the terms of that legislation to cover all GSS employees of AHS who are members of AUPE.
This group is made up of members of Local 054, which represents employees of the former Capital Health Region; Local 095, which represents employees of the former Calgary Health Region; and Locals 056 and 057, which represent employees of the former Aspen, David Thompson, East Central and Peace Country health regions. GSS employees of the former Alberta Cancer Board will also be covered by the consolidated agreement.
Under the regulations, the special officer fulfills a function similar to that of a Mediator. Dates have been scheduled for May 13, 14, 15 and 16 to meet with the mediator. A consolidated agreement will hopefully be reached prior to commencing full bargaining in early 2011.
Bargaining Update: January 22, 2010
Following the May 15, 2008 merger of Alberta’s health regions into the single authority of Alberta Health Services, the Alberta Labour Relations Board set out four province-wide bargaining units. These units are to represent direct nursing care or instruction, paramedical professional or technical services, auxiliary nursing care, and general support services. AUPE represents the latter two bargaining units.
The Alberta Labour Relations Board also ordered the union to begin transition talks with the employer to amalgamate the separate General Support Services agreements into a single receiving agreement. The collective agreement for AUPE Local 054 has served as the starting point for discussions between the union and employer.
Representatives from AUPE Locals 054, 056, 057, and 095 have signed off on a large number of Articles and Letters of Understanding in GSS transition meetings with representatives from Alberta Health Services.
The General Support Services Transitional Bargaining team held meetings with the employer on 27 days from August to January, with scheduled dates for Feb 1, and 2.
The outstanding issues at this point are classification system province wide, classification appeal process and the salary appendix.
The following articles in the receiving agreement for the new, province-wide General Support Services bargaining unit have been signed off by the employer and the transitional bargaining team:
