AUPE and Alberta Health Services reach tentative pact for ANC transitional agreement
EDMONTON – Negotiators for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and Alberta Health Services have signed a tentative transitional agreement covering all Auxiliary Nursing Care staff employed by the province-wide health care superboard.
The agreement, signed Friday, replaces the separate collective agreements signed with each of the now-defunct Alberta health regions in the last round of bargaining.
Affected AUPE members will see little difference from their current agreements, said union Staff negotiator Jim Petrie, who led the AUPE bargaining team.
Information packages will be mailed to all affected members within the next few days and members will have the opportunity to cast a mail-in ballot to ratify the change, he said. The timing of the ratification vote will be announced as soon as possible.
Petrie said the transitional agreement covers only direct ANC employees of Alberta Health Services. Facilities owned by other groups, such as religious organizations, that provide public services through the AHS will continue to operate for the time being under the old multi-employer agreement or other relevant contract.
Petrie explained that negotiation of the single agreement is required by law due to the Alberta government’s decision to collapse the regional health authorities into a single province-wide health agency.
Most changes in the transition agreement deal with housekeeping matters such as eliminating mention of the nine former health regions, Petrie said.
The transitional agreement also creates province-wide rules for seniority, layoff, recall and job postings, as well as provisions that will see existing local rules operate in most cases.
Several letters of understanding from the regional agreements have been continued in the transitional agreement with application to local conditions, Petrie said.
In addition, he noted, the agreement includes one province-wide salary scale for all ANC employees of AHS.
Benefit plans will continue to operate for the time being as they have in each of the regions, and the parties have agreed to meet in July to negotiate a benefits package applicable to all affected AHS employees.
“Most affected AUPE members will see very little difference in the details or the operation of their collective agreement,” Petrie said. “This is an important first, step, however, to moving into province-wide bargaining for a single agreement in the future.”
The deal also includes the signing of a voluntary exit program containing the same terms as those that apply to other health care unions. The program provides 1.5 weeks of salary for each year of continuous services up to a maximum of 52 weeks salary upon the employer’s approval of application.
Representatives of AUPE and AHS continue to negotiate a similar transitional agreement for all General Support Service employees of AHS.
AHS employees about 12,000 Auxiliary Nursing Care workers and has about 24,000 employees in GSS roles.
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