Bethany Camrose employees ratify wage reopener with 5% general increase and market adjustments
CAMROSE – Members of AUPE Local 047/002 who work for the Bethany Group, Camrose, have voted to ratify a one-year wage reopener agreement that includes a 5-per-cent across-the-board pay increase plus significant market adjustments for all members.
Market adjustments for the approximately 450 Auxiliary Nursing Care and General Support Service employees range from 3 per cent to 10 per cent in addition to the basic 5-per-cent increase, with the largest groups qualifying for the largest market increase, said Staff Negotiator Malcolm McNaughton.
The agreement includes a provision to pay retroactive pay to April 1, 2008, said McNaughton, who led the union bargaining team.
“The bargaining committee was pleased that everyone was treated fairly with a general increase of 5 per cent plus the market adjustments, which reflects the economic conditions members have to face here,” McNaughton said after the votes were counted Thursday.
In addition, he noted, while it was not required by the wage-reopener agreement in the second year of the two-year collective agreement signed in 2007, the employer was also prepared to bargain increases in shift and weekend differential pay.
“These significant pay increases match the increases AUPE achieved at its major GSS and ANC tables in bargaining with the health regions and reflect the continuing recruitment and retention challenges faced by health sector employers in Alberta,” McNaughton said.
Local 047/002 represents about 300 ANC and 150 GSS employees at the Rosehaven long-term care facility in this east central Alberta community plus the Rosealta and Stoney Creek assisted living lodges in Camrose and the Bashaw Valley Lodge in Bashaw.
In a wage-reopener, the union and employer agree to negotiate wages for the last year of a collective agreement, leaving all other provisions of the contract in place.