HSP Tentative Agreement Information

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For almost 20 years, provincial governments in BC worked deliberately to drive down wages for specialized health professionals in BC.

In many cases, they succeeded, leaving health professionals earning some of the lowest wages relative to their colleagues across Canada. It was a misguided attempt to control healthcare costs; instead, it slowly undermined the healthcare system even before the pandemic created the current crisis of dire shortages and crushing workload.

  • With the tentative agreement just secured on behalf of all health science professionals, this begins to turn around:
  • For the first time in decades, this proposed agreement provides significant pay increases, delivering members an increase of approximately 12 to 14% more, at the minimum, over three years.
  • Cost of Living Adjustments are built in to protect pay against longer-term increases in inflation.
  • Improvements to premiums for on-call, short-notice, super shifts and weekend shifts will put more money in many members’ pockets.
  • A long-overdue update to the classification system provides more recognition of the complexity and scope of work, more opportunity for career advancement, and more respect.
  • Specific provisions address the recruitment and retention crisis.
  • Occupational health and safety changes address mental health under duress, unsafe workloads, infection control standards, access to personal protective equipment and prevention of violence in the workplace.
  • Enhanced education leaves support for professional development.
  • A new focus on implementing recommendations to support the inclusion of Indigenous workers, patients and clients will work toward reconciliation and culturally-safe health care.
  • Inclusion of communities that experience marginalization in the healthcare system is a major priority.

Please plan on attending one of the upcoming ratification meetings (details were emailed to all members) to review and ask questions about the tentative agreement. In the meantime, you can learn more about the details of the agreement through the links below:

Ratification Vote: December 14-21, 2022
Voting on ratification of the tentative agreement will open Wednesday, December 14 at 8:00 a.m. PST and close on Wednesday, December 21 at midnight. Scrutineering will be held at 8:45 a.m. on December 22, and the results will be announced later that morning.

Members will receive an email from the PEA with their voting credentials to their preferred email address on Wednesday, December 14, at 8:00 a.m. PST. The email will contain a link to the voting site and their unique credential information (login and password).

If you do not receive the email from Simply Voting, please check your junk mail folder. If it isn’t there please contact the PEA via email at voting@pea.org or by calling 1-800-779-7736 ext # 200. Adding pea@simplyvoting.com to your address book can facilitate the delivery of your voting credentials.

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