Modest progress seen in mediation for Multi-Employer Auxiliary Nursing Care Agreement
EDMONTON – Negotiators for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and eight Alberta health regions met for three full days with a provincially appointed mediator on July 20, 21 and 22 as they work to consolidate 17 agreements into a single Multi-Employer Auxiliary Nursing Care Agreement.
Mediator David Jones met with the employer and union bargaining committees separately, dealing with issues related to hours of work, said AUPE Staff Negotiator Jim Petrie, who leads the union Bargaining Committee in the negotiations that will affect more than 9,000 Auxiliary Nursing Care (ANC) employees throughout Alberta.
The focus of mediation was quite narrow, Petrie said, with modest progress seen on hours of work language in the main body of the agreement, transitional scheduling provisions, and the scheduling of work in community and mental health clinics.
Additional mediation dates were set at the July 20-22 sessions:
- Sept. 6-8, 2005
- Sept. 19-20, 2005
The two bargaining committees agreed in late June that the assistance of a mediator was required for an agreement to be reached.
However, some progress had been made on uncontroversial articles without the assistance of a mediator during two days of bargaining on June 22 and 23, Petrie said. The parties also spent some of the time on those dates in preparatory meetings with the mediator.
At that time, the sides agreed to provide the mediator with outlines of how they wanted to proceed, and their priorities for negotiations.
Significant progress had been made on several issues in earlier bargaining meetings, but a wide gap remains on wages and a number of other important issues.
The need to negotiate a single consolidated collective agreement arises from passage of the Labour Relations (Regional Health Authorities Restructuring) Amendment Act by the Alberta Legislature in March 2003.
That legislation requires all existing agreements in Alberta’s nine health regions to be consolidated into single region-wide contracts in each region. The employers and AUPE agreed that a single identical ANC agreement would be negotiated for all Alberta health regions except the Calgary Health Region, which decided it would negotiate separately.
Unlike consolidation contract negotiations at some tables, wages are being negotiated at the Multi-Employer ANC table because AUPE’s current Multi-Employer ANC Agreement with the health regions is in the “expired period.”
On the contentious issue of wages, neither side has yet moved from its initial position, Petrie said.
HBA Services, the health regions’ bargaining agency, earlier tabled an offer of a pay increase of two per cent in each year of a four-year collective agreement. AUPE tabled an initial position calling for pay increases of 10 per cent in the first year, 10 per cent in the second year and seven per cent in the third year of a three-year agreement.
AUPE’s opening wage position is designed to recognize that ANC employees of Alberta health regions have fallen far behind the wages paid other professional groups by Alberta health regions, and that the scope of practice, skills and competencies required of employees in the ANC group has grown over the past several years.
In addition to the old Multi-Employer ANC agreement, the contracts that must be consolidated include the old Community Health and Mental Health agreements in each region.
HBA Services was formerly known as the Provincial Health Authorities of Alberta.
AUPE represents all ANC employees in all nine Alberta health regions.
Multi-Employer ANC Bargaining Committee
Gloria Surridge
Committee Chair
Royal Alexandra Hospital
780-430-7207
Myrna Wright
Vice-Chair
Pincher Creek Hospital
403-627-4507
Leona Hrabec
Misericordia Hospital
780-487-2081
Sandy Kyle
Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital
780-963-5384
Bob Mack
Alberta Hospital Edmonton
780-893-5930
Audrey Nicholas
Dr. Cooke Extended Care Centre Lloydminster
780-875-1707
Terry Orcheski
St. Mary’s Hospital Camrose & Home Care
780-679-4129
Terry Sawchuk
Home Care Palliser
403-548-7152
Lorraine Stone
Community Grande Prairie
780-568-3417
Brenda Thacker
Peace River Health Complex & Community
780-624-2354
Jim Petrie
AUPE Staff Negotiator
1-800-232-7284, Press 1