Collective agreement awarded for administrative professional bargaining unit

HALIFAX, Sept. 20, 2018 /CNW/ - On September 18, 2018, mediator/arbitrator William Kaplan issued an award that establishes a collective agreement for more than 3,000 employees in the Health Administrative Professional Bargaining Unit at the NSHA and the IWK.

The award came after one day of mediation-arbitration that took place September 18, 2018 and concludes a process that began in October 2016.

The Council of Health Care Unions is made up of CUPE, NSGEU, NSNU and Unifor. The Council was legislated to negotiate 16 collective agreements down to one each for the IWK and NSHA.

This award established a six-year term of agreement. Approximately two years remain in the term.

All monetary improvements in this new collective agreement will become effective today except for those where the agreement specifies a different date. For example, some wage increases are retroactive to 2016 and some will not take place until some point in the future.

All other provisions including all language changes will not take effect until November 17, 2018, unless otherwise specified in the award. This is necessary to allow both sides to prepare for the changes required. During this time the transitional collective agreements that members have operated under since 2011 will remain in effect.

Shift and weekend premiums will have the same adjustment amounts applied as in the healthcare bargaining unit.

This concludes bargaining for the Administrative Professional Bargaining Unit. The Support Services and Nursing Bargaining Units will now begin their bargaining.

The summary of the award for NSHA can be found here. 
The summary of the award for IWK can be found here.

SOURCE Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)