Nurses' Bargaining Association negotiations begin
Safe care issues top nurses' agenda
Initial contract negotiations between the Nurses' Bargaining Association (NBA) and the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) took place May 15 and 16. The NBA contract covers Licensed Practical Nurses, Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses employed by provincial health authorities. Although the current 2012-2014 Provincial Collective Agreement (PCA) expired March 31, 2014, its provisions remain in effect.
Current safe staffing issues unresolved
Nurses' top priority for bargaining talks is their ability to provide safe, quality patient care. Contract language to ensure safe staffing levels was secured in the previous contract. However, NBA representatives expressed grave concerns about the lack of respect for that agreement and the failure of the employer to implement contract language designed to ensure the safety of patients, clients and residents in nurses' care. Resolving those issues and many other outstanding issues from the last agreement must be tackled before any discussions on new initiatives take place.
Despite contractual promises to replace nurses when absent, as well as for patient demand, nurses' representatives say evidence shows this has often not occurred. They say long-term care nurses have not received access to jobs and training when layoffs took place, which was promised in the last agreement. Ongoing violence against nurses and unsafe working conditions also persist, and nurses want to see province-wide solutions from this round of negotiations.
Nurses' experiences must be heard
During the talks, NBA reps insisted that the real life day-to-day working experiences of nurses must be heard at the table. To date, however, many nurses' experiences indicate that they are not getting the required staffing that was agreed to - and patients and nurses are suffering as a result.
For its part, the employer was anxious to present numbers showing progress in how it has addressed staffing. Today HEABC presented and reviewed the recent Health Sciences Professional Bargaining Association (HSPBA) five-year deal which was ratified in December of 2013.
The preliminary talks ended today, and nurses' reps remain firm that outstanding staffing and care issues must be resolved. Both nurses and employer spokespersons expressed a willingness to listen and look for solutions. No dates have been set for future discussions at this time.