WCB-Alberta (Millard Health) Bargaining Update #10 - Bargaining Impasse

Your bargaining committee met with the Employer on November 25 and 26 to continue negotiations, with the hope of reaching a tentative agreement.

During these two days, we had meaningful conversations, however we remain far apart on issues that your bargaining committee feels have significant impact on our membership at Millard. Ultimately, we have reached an impasse and will be filing for informal mediation. Once we have dates scheduled, we will advise you.  

We received a copy of the correspondence the Employer sent out this morning and we are disappointed that WCB has decided to share some of their proposals that are still actively being negotiated with our members. 

WCB Millard still has a concession on the table. They have proposed for new employees to reduce the vacation from the first through fourth years of service from 144.96 hours to 108.75 hours. This may not affect current employees, but this was negotiated into your Collective Agreement, and the Employer should not expect our members to accept concessions in order to get a deal. In fact, it is noted that the non- union staff still remain at the 144.96 hours, but the Employer intends to reduce this if they are successful obtaining it through our negotiations.  

Your Employer is also fighting for new employees to be able, upon hire, to have vacation approved even if existing employees have been rejected. When we approached this, we made it clear that this could not just impact new employees and we needed to find a resolve with our proposals that benefited existing employees and the employer rejected.

 These are just a few of the contentious issues we are still facing in bargaining.  

While WCB actions could trigger additional complaints against them, our commitment to you means saving those resources for what matters most: continuing to bargaining the collective agreement you deserve. 

Thank you for your patience, your committee is working hard to try to negotiate a reasonable and fair deal for all of you.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your negotiating committee members, or you can contact Jody Machtans (jodym@hsaa.ca) or Fenton Corey at (fentonc@hsaa.ca). 

Sincerely,

Brian Podruzny, Occupational Therapist II

JoAnne Dore, Exercise Therapist

Jody Machtans, Labour Relations Officer/Lead Spokesperson

Fenton Corey, Labour Relations Officer/Spokesperson