Primary Care Alberta Transition

News

On December 4, the Government of Alberta issued a ministerial order regarding the transfer of unionized employees from Alberta Health Services (AHS) and Recovery Alberta to Primary Care Alberta (PCA). This order confirms that successorship will be followed as outlined in the legislation, and your current collective agreement will continue to apply.

Primary Care Alberta is part of the Alberta government’s ongoing restructuring of AHS into four separate sector-based provincial health agencies: primary care, acute care, continuing care and mental health and addiction. There are few details on the full scope of this organization, but the impacted areas are:

  • Health Link 811
  • Primary Care Networks
  • Provincial Midwifery Services
  • Select primary care clinics
  • Facilitated Access to Surgical Treatment (FAST) program
  • Virtual Care, Access and Navigation (V-CAN)
  • Primary Health Care provincial program

Impacted members will have received a communication on December 3 from their employer. Those impacted will receive a formal transfer notice between December 9 and 11. The first day for transferred staff will be February 1.

Staff transitioning to PCA will have continuity of pay, benefits, pension, standard hours, vacation entitlement, seniority, union affiliation, work location and clinical and corporate systems and processes.

During our bargaining with AHS, we dealt with the transition of members to Recovery Alberta with a Letter of Understanding that will be the basis for the transfer to PCA and any future provincial health agencies, like acute care or continuing care.

HSAA will be meeting with AHS and PCA as soon as possible to confirm the application of this LOU to the PCA transfer announced this week.

This LOU provides members with the ability to choose their employer during any transition based on the availability of vacant positions in the same classification and a variety of criteria. Previously, under the terms of your collective agreement and the transition legislation, there was no ability to choose in any circumstances.

If followed, this agreement will maintain Recovery Alberta, AHS and now PCA as a single bargaining unit until the payroll transition date in April 2025. The rights, benefits and provisions of your collective agreement will now be portable between AHS and PCA until April 2025.

This agreement addresses many of the outstanding issues not covered by the transition legislation. Maintaining a single bargaining unit and one collective agreement will allow for:

  • Seniority rights to apply when applying on positions with both employers.
  • Members to hold multiple positions with both employers and maintain the benefits applicable to their cumulative employment status.
  • All pre-approved vacation leaves and shift exchanges to be honored.
  • Members anniversary dates and hours worked to continue to be applied toward their next increment increase.

For any questions or concerns, please reach out to your LRO or our Member Resource Centre for any questions – 1-844-280 HSAA (4722) / mrc@hsaa.ca.