Employer commits to fixing their error regarding ‘wage freeze’
Your negotiating team met with the employer on March 6. We continued negotiations and gave them a our complete proposals for all outstanding monetary items. The employer was not able to respond that day, so we have offered three additional dates to meet in April.
We hope to have good discussions about monetary items in April. However, that depends on Points West sharing information on the organization’s current monetary conditions – which they have refused to do so far.
In early January, we filed a bad-faith bargaining complaint with the Labour Relations Board to force Points West to share this information. At our March 6 meeting, the employer said they would start providing this information to us – but they have not yet done so.
In February, we filed a complaint with the Labour Relations Board regarding the employer's refusal to provide staff with a wage step increase. Points West called this a "freeze" on wages and blamed it on negotiations with the union. They are wrong about needing to do this – they don’t and shouldn’t.
The freeze prevents an employer from changing a term or condition of employment without the consent of the union.
For example, the employer cannot increase or decrease the pay scale during the freeze period. Meaning they can't give you a 1% raise without the consent of the union. But what they CAN do is allow employees to go up wage steps, like they did before you joined AUPE.
Points West told us they will correct this error. If this applies to you, you should receive a letter from Points West this week with information about your step increase and retro-pay.
If you have any concerns with the letter you receive, or you don't receive a letter and you believe you should have, contact Member Services Officer Guy Quenneville at g.quenneville@aupe.org.
Thank you for your patience throughout this process. Your negotiating team will continue to hold the employer accountable at the bargaining table. We are all in this together!
AUPE NEGOTIATING TEAM - PWL DRAYTON VALLEY
Beverley Sawchuk
beviethenurse@gmail.com
Beth Boser
wboser@telus.net
Chelsie Nicolls
cnicolls97@gmail.com
AUPE RESOURCE STAFF
Kate Robinson, Negotiator
k.robinson@aupe.org