Joint Bulletin: Update on PCAP and Working Short Premium
The NBA and HEABC negotiated new language into the 2019-2022 provincial collective agreement to recognize the need for a responsive approach to address immediate staffing requirements.
Article 60 - Direct Patient Care Assessment, describes a process and tool that helps nurses and managers of a unit, department or service to jointly determine patient care staffing needs. Article 28.04 - Working Short Premium, requires payment of a premium for when direct patient care needs cannot be met with the existing staff. Health employers are reminded that they must make all attempts to fill the vacancy or provide the required workload. The payment of the premium is designed in the event that efforts to provide staffing, or mitigate the workload, fail. The process to determine patient care and staffing needs as outlined in Article 60 was not completed in time for April 1.
On March 31, BCNU and HEABC agreed to suspend the implementation of the process and tool and pay the working short premium for the month of April while work got underway to gather additional data to inform a provincial standardized tool.
In the coming weeks, joint implementation of a patient care assessment process (PCAP) will begin. Between now and then, payment of the Article 28.04 working short premium will be suspended to allow for the robust development and implementation of an appropriate PCAP.
Once a PCAP is in place on your unit and determined that patient care needs cannot be met with the existing staff, members will receive payment of the working short premium as per Article 28.04.
The intention is to complete implementation of a PCAP in all applicable areas by July 4 2020. If by that date, an agreed upon PCAP has not been implemented in a specific direct care practice area, payment of the working short premium under Article 28.04 will resume until an agreed upon PCAP is in place.
To resolve outstanding disputes over Article 28.04, and for clarity, Level 2, Level 4 and Level 5 nurses will be paid the working short premium for all straight time worked hours for the month of April.
Upon implementation, BCNU's elected Council and steward teams, in partnership with Health Authority/Providence Health Care staff, will be presenting joint education session to both staff and management on the process and tool in place. In addition, the steward-at-large (SAL) positions will be extended for the term of the 2019-2022 NBA provincial collective agreement to further support the implementation of the PCAP tools.
A ticketing system will be developed and made available to nurses and managers to gather immediate feedback and data collection on the process itself, including questions regarding interpretation and implementation. For those members who have missed payments of the working short premium or have been paid incorrectly throughout the month of April and ongoing, please reach out to your employer's payroll department or your BCNU regional chair. Both parties are committed to urgently fix those issues.
For more information, contact your manager or BCNU Regional Chair.