https://engage.gov.bc.ca/paidsickleave/
Click on the link about or copy and paste into your browser and take a few minutes to complete the survey.
From: CSS Health Safety <healthsafety@cssea.bc.ca>
Sent: August 30, 2021 5:39 PM
Subject: Council Webinar Communication Release
The Council is pleased to share the CSS Prevention of Violence in the Workplace Training Webinar, which will be offered free of charge on September 15th (9:00am – 12:00pm) to the sector. Please register at this link: CSS Prevention of Violence in the Workplace Training Webinar Registration.
Seasoned speaker Phil Eastwood, Sr. Partner at Fiore Group Training Inc., will be presenting valuable information on violence prevention in the workplace. Some of the topics he will be covering include: why pursue prevention of violence in the workplace training; the role and legal responsibilities that employees, front-line supervisors, managers and employers have including their ‘Duty of Care’; and a host of other key topics.
We urge you to register quickly to reserve a spot and look forward to having you joining us on this very important session!!
We invite you to share this information with sister organizations and look forward to collaborating with you to build and promote healthy workplaces in the Community Social Services sector.
Contact: For more information, please contact Fiona Senyk, Health & Safety Coordinator at healthsafety@cssea.bc.ca.
CUPE BC UPDATES
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS & RESOURCES
Dear members,
Please read on for general CUPE BC announcements and to learn more about upcoming events, learning resources, and community engagement opportunities. If this email was forwarded to you and you wish to be added to our mailing list, please send an email request to info@cupe.bc.
U pcoming CUPE BC Canvasses | 2021 Federal Elections
Below is a list of upcoming canvasses taking place over the coming days in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island:
| Port Moody – Coquitlam. Sept 3 | 6:00 pm *Today*
3278 Westwood St, Port Coquitlam; Event Link: Click here Burnaby South Sept 4 | 1:00 pm 5262 Rumble St, Burnaby Event Link: Click here Pitt Meadows – Maple Ridge Sept 5 | 1:00 pm Corner of 224th St & 119th Ave, Maple Ridge Event Link: Click here |
Nanaimo. Sept 6 | 10:00 am
140 Commercial St, Nanaimo Event Link: Click here Victoria Sept 6 | 1:30 pm 1262 Quadra St, Victoria. Event Link: Click here
|
Please also check the CUPE BC Facebook page regularly for a full list of other upcoming canvasses and events.
T-Shirt Fundraiser | Orange Shirt Day | Sept 30
CUPE BC encourages members to visit the Orange Shirt Society website and consider a t-shirt purchase for Orange Shirt Day on September 30, 2021. Partial proceeds from all t-shirt and merchandise sales will go towards the Orange Shirt Society and support the organization’s reconciliation events and activities. T-shirts may also be purchased directly from various London Drugs locations.
CUPE BC Posters | UNDRIP and Truth & Reconciliation
All locals should have received print copies of the CUPE BC United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and 94 Calls to Action posters in mail earlier this summer. A digital file containing both posters has been attached for viewing and distribution. If your local would like to request additional print posters, please email the CUPE BC Office (info@cupe.bc.ca) with your desired quantity, poster type, and mailing address.
BC Government Consultation | Paid Sick Leave Survey | Sept 14
The Provincial Government is developing paid sick leave for employees in BC to enable them to stay home when sick or injured, without losing wages, for a set number of days each year. The new model will come into effect on January 1, 2022. At this time, the Government is seeking input from workers and employers about what paid sick leave they currently have in their workplaces and what improvements could be made. For more information, please see below:
Paid Sick Leave Engagement Project: Click here
Worker Survey: Click here Employer/Business Owner survey: Click here Surveys Close: September 14, 2021
CCPA Reports | Election 44: The Care Economy, Women, and COVID-19
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has remained at the forefront of the COVID pandemic by publishing in-depth analysis of its impacts and policy changes that are needed to protect vulnerable populations. Please find links below to the CCPA’s reports and policy recommendations as the elections approach:
Platform Crunch: Conservatives release their federal commitments
Which promises have the Conservatives made to support women’s employment and the care economy? Click here to review the CCPA’s recent analysis, along with their assessment of the NDP commitments (click here). Other party platforms will be released as well.
Budget Watch 2021: The rebuild must start with the care economy
Senior CCPA researcher Katherine Scott explains why the “rebuild must start with the care economy” as a means of addressing the social, racialized, gendered, and income inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to read more.
Long-term care reform: No time to waste
The CCPA has published a road map (click here) to ensure that every senior is able to live with dignity and respect.
Canada’s immigration system is failing migrant care workers
COVID-19 has worsened the precarious, sometimes abusive working conditions for migrant care workers—most of whom are women and racialized people. Click here to read CCPA researcher Rishika Waderhra’s analysis.
For more information, please read the CCPA Report “Women, work, and COVID-19: Priorities for supporting women and the economy” by Katherine Scott or listen to the CCPA “The Care Economy and What’s at Stake” podcast episode.
Should you have any questions regarding this update, please email info@cupe.bc.ca for additional information.
In solidarity,
CUPE BC Executive Board
CUPE British Columbia
#410-6222 Willingdon Avenue , Burnaby, British Columbia, V5H 0G3 P: 604.291.9119
Headquartered on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), Tsleil-Waututh and Qayqayt First Nations.
This e-mail is intended only for the person or persons to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any other distribution, copying or disclosure is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail message in error, please notify the sender immediately and return this e-mail to the sender.
CUPE BC is committed to reducing the use of paper. Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
Hi there,
You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Sep 15, 2021 06:30 PM Vancouver
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElfu-hrj8uH9xYmPLh7ZO2RGdJ7q7NnAL3
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
CUPE is pleased to see NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pledge Tuesday that an NDP government would end for-profit long-term care (LTC) and commit to a Care Guarantee.
CUPE members and Canadians at large expect our federal government to take real, meaningful action to address the unthinkable tragedies that took place in long-term care during the pandemic.
But we also have to recognize that conditions in many long-term care homes were bleak before the pandemic too.
The understaffing and the lack of resources that cause so much suffering in long-term care are the direct result of cost-cutting so that for-profit operators can turn a profit to shareholders – and it is residents and workers who pay the price.
Mountains of evidence have proven that not-for-profit care delivers better outcomes for residents and better working conditions for workers, and CUPE has been calling for action to address the problems in long-term care for decades.
We are encouraged to see the NDP make this important pledge, and we call on other parties to follow suit. It’s the least they can do for the people who have borne the worst effects of this pandemic.
CUPE members bravely answered the call on the front lines of the response to COVID-19. But the pandemic showed us just how far we have to go to deliver better care to those who need it. In this election, better care for all is on the ballot.
Long-term care in Canada was in a crisis before COVID-19 – and the pandemic pulled back the curtain on just how bad things were for residents and workers alike. Long-term care is health care – and in Canada, there should be no place for greed and profiteering in our health care system. It’s been almost a year since the Trudeau Liberals promised to fix long-term care, and nothing has changed. The Liberals have completely failed to act. It’s time to bring long-term care under the Canada Health Act, making it a publicly funded and delivered health care service accessible to everyone. Residents should be guaranteed a minimum of 4.1 hours of care per day, and workers should be guaranteed a secure job and a livable wage. In this election, let’s vote to fix long-term care.
Our economy doesn’t work without quality, affordable, accessible child care. The pandemic made that clear. We know that public investment in child care isn’t just good for kids – it also advances women’s economic participation, and creates jobs and grows the economy. The BC NDP government recently signed a landmark agreement with the federal government to move forward with $10-a-day child care across the province – clear proof of the progress we can make with NDP governments in office. In this election, let’s vote for affordable, quality, accessible child care and good-paying, secure jobs for child care workers.
Millions of Canadians have no prescription drug coverage, and one in ten people in Canada can’t afford their medication at all. But despite decades of studies and repeated election promises, the Trudeau Liberals have consistently stood in the way of enacting a national pharmacare program since taking office in 2015. A national, universal pharmacare plan is the only way to ensure equitable access to essential medications for all Canadians, while also lowering the cost of drugs for families, workers, governments, and employers. This election, let’s vote to make a national pharmacare program a reality.
August 19, 2021
CUPE forms bargaining committee for provincial Community Social Services negotiations
BURNABY—CUPE has confirmed today its caucus members for the provincial Community Social Services Bargaining Association’s (CSSBA) bargaining committee. The members, who come from around the province, reflect the regional representation of the number of CUPE members working under CSSBA General Services and Community Living agreements and will be excellent representatives for CUPE community social service members in B.C.
“We are pleased to see some of the Locals with smaller groups covered by CSSBA agreements stepping up and taking part in this process,” says CUPE BC General Vice- President Sheryl Burns, also the Community Social Services committee chair and the president of CUPE 1936.
“We recognize that they have a larger financial burden due to travel, accommodations, and so on – and we are looking at ways to make that less burdensome in the future, so that even the smallest groups will have an opportunity to participate.”
The group plans to meet in September and, by mid-fall, begin surveying the concerns of members across the province.
“I look forward to working with committee members, who bring a wealth of historical and front-line knowledge to our caucus and are key to ensuring that our members across the province will have their voices heard,” says CUPE National Staff Representative Michael Reed, coordinator for CUPE’s Community Social Services sector in B.C.
The CSS collective agreements between CSSEA (the Community Social Services Employer’s Association) and CSSBA expire on March 31, 2022. Some groups will also engage in negotiating agency-specific agreements, referred to as local issues agreements, between October 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022.
For more information, please contact Michael Reed at: mreed@cupe.ca. For general information around negotiations, visit www.cssfairdeal.ca.
B.C. is aligning with the Government of Canada’s decision to recognize September 30, 2021 as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. What this means is members under the Community Social Services collective agreements in the CSSBA – Community Living Services, General Services and Indigenous Services – are entitled to the holiday starting September 2021.
This entitlement comes from language your union negotiated in the collective agreements under 17.1 (Paid Holidays) that grants members, not only existing federal and provincial holidays, but “any other day proclaimed by the federal or provincial government.”
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is meant to recognize the tragic history and lasting effects of Canada’s residential school system.
Going forward, the province will engage with Indigenous partners and the business and labour communities to determine the most appropriate way to commemorate September 30th.
The provincial government is currently conducting surveys regarding access to Employer paid sick leave. CUPE Local 1936 members who are covered by the General Services and/or Community Living provincial Collective Agreements are only able to access 80% Employer paid sick leave. Community Social Service Workers are one of the few public sectors that do not have access to 100% Employer paid sick leave. This is unacceptable.
As workers in the Community Social Services sector, the CUPE Local 1936 Executive requests that you participate in the survey below. The provincial government needs to fully understand that 80% Employer paid sick leave is not enough. They need to understand the negative impact this has on our members and the ways in which 80% employer sick leave impacts your decisions on whether or not you choose to work when you are sick. We hope you will take a few minutes to fill out this survey. The government needs to hear from you.
The surveys can be accessed here: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/paidsickleave/ and the News Release here: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021LBR0028-001534
Surveys will be available in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Punjabi, Korean and Tagalog next week.
In addition to engagement with key stakeholders and Indigenous partners, there will be two phases of consultation:
In solidarity,
Sheryl Burns, President, CUPE Local 1936
Lee-Ann Lalli, Vice-President, CUPE Local 1936
Bernice Way, Secretary-Treasurer, CUPE Local 1936
After 112 days of being locked out, it’s time we stand together with the women who cook for, clean after, and serve guests in hotels. On August 5, join fired and locked out Hilton Metrotown workers, hotel workers, and women leaders in the labour movement for a sit-in at the Hilton Metrotown to urge the hotel to bring workers back to their jobs!
Date: Thursday, August 5th, 2021
Time: 5:00 pm
Where: Hilton Metrotown, 6083 McKay Ave, Burnaby, BC
Facebook: Click here
As workplaces begin to open up again, questions are being asked about the ability to purchase leave related to COVID-19.
This is the link to the MPP website that explains how the purchase of service works.
Leaves, time off and wage changes – Municipal – Municipal (pensionsbc.ca)
| Leaves, time off and wage changes – Municipal – Municipal
If your work situation changes because of COVID-19, your pension could be affected. Learn about your options if you take a leave, have your hours reduced, are temporarily laid off or receive temporary pandemic pay. |
For purchase of leave, there is usually a 3-year employment requirement but due to the pandemic, this provision has been waived.
For members that have specific inquiries about your own situation, they should contact the Pension Corporation for assistance.
