Over 6,000 Nova Scotian health care employees have been awarded a contract.
They’ve been in negotiations with the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) and IWK since October 2016.
The two contracts – one with NSHA and one with IWK – came through yesterday, five days after a mediation-arbitration process began.
The Health Care Bargaining Unit is made up of representatives from the Nova Scotia Goverment General Employees Union, Nova Scotia Nurses Union, Unifor, and Canadian Union of Public Employees.
They represent many employees including lab technicians, social workers, ortho techs, and most employees who are not nurses or administrative staff.
Lead negotiator Jason MacLean, who is president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, says he’s pleased with the result.
“We are pleased… This has been a long process where we had an employer who was just hell-bent on taking all provisions and racing them to the bottom and they didn’t acheive that.”
The new contracts were settled without a labour dispute, although the IWK was in a legal strike position earlier this year.
This is the first agreement negotiated since the province merged all of the health authorities into one.
The collective agreement is retroactive to 2014 and expires in 2020.
MacLean says union members deserve credit for standing up for what they needed.
“It was great with the other unions, we had focus, we worked on what the issues were, we looked at the language in each collective agreements and we brought a package forward that we thought was palitable to the employer.”
Meanwhile, the Nova Scotia Health Authority and IWK say they are also happy with the results.
In a press release, the two employers say the move will see the health care employees operate under one contract with NSHA and one for IWK.
That’s a change from the 19 agreements they started with and it came about without labour disruptions.
One outstanding item – shift and weekend premiums – will be decided August 15.
Nova Scotia’s Premier is also happy with the new deal for health care workers.
Stephen McNeil says the arbitrator did well to negotiate a six-year contract that bought stability while staying within the province’s ability to pay.
“He dealt with those things that the bargaining units themselves, the different unions that are associated with this one, couldn’t come to terms with. And we felt, with an approach that we were happy with.”
The Premier was quick to respond when asked if he could’ve had deal done sooner if he hadn’t been so rigid about long service awards.
“Do you mean if I’d given a blank cheque? Of course I could have gotten a deal. What I needed was one that was affordable. The Long Service Award is an outdated practice.”
McNeil says the new retention bonus included in the contract isn’t the same as the long service award.
He says the bonus is a pay bump after 25 years of service that affects approximately 100 people.
And that will cost the province around $160,000 where the long-service award comes with an annual hit of $44 million dollars.
McNeil says those savings allow government to make investments in areas like health care and education.
Story by Brittany Wentzell and Ed Halverson
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca halverson.ed@radioabl.ca
Twitter: @BrittWentzell @EdwardHalverson
