Hi, I'm moving to Vancouver at the end of this year (2007).
I have been provisionally offered a job at Surrey Memorial Hospital and I'm just wondering whether anyone can tell me a bit about the hospital or the area - working conditions etc.?
Or do you think I would be better off in one of the other two Vancouver health authorities - Providence HC. or Vancouver Coastal?
Any advice or comments on working in Surrey or other health authorities is much appreciated, as I am coming over from the UK and don't know Vancouver (or Canada) at all.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Hello. I am a little confused about working under the health authorities and I hope someone can shed some light. Are the nurses automatically part of the union? And do they all get the same benefits, ex. extended insurance, etc.? Thanks for your replies.
Also, what if one works under a casual position. Do they still get the same benefits as someone who is regular? Thanks again.
Casual employees are never eligible for benefits such as extended health care, pension, disability and such, except for certain casual nurses in Alberta who have agreed to work a minimum of 0.4 full time equivalent. At least that's what the UNA contract says; the contract was ratified a year ago yesterday but Human Resources has still not worked out the kinks in that plan or the weekend worker plan as well as several others... It took them a year to figure out the market adjustment for part-timers and they still didn't get it right. That's one of the big problems with health care negotiations in Alberta; we don't have the right to strike, so they can string us along as long as possible before meeting the terms of our collective agreement, and the labour board will always side with them. And now that we're all one big happy family (health region) and are employed by Ron Liepert, who knows what will happen? We only know it won't be good.
Jan, you have to read the BC contracts carefully. The LPNs that were casual out there (under BCGEU) qualified for benefits and pension after a certain number of hours had been worked. For some reason, the figure two years of causual employment sticks in my mind for pension eligibilty.
BC has a history of being a very strong and union friendly province. BCGEU has had clauses in their contracts for decades that we in AUPE can only dream about.
NotReady4PrimeTime, RN
5 Articles; 7,358 Posts
If you work for a facility you will automatically have union dues deducted and will then be a union member. Regular employees are eligible for the benefits attached to the collective agreement (http://www.bcnu.org/contracts_services/provincial_contract/pdf/NCA2006-2010.pdf).
Casual employees are never eligible for benefits such as extended health care, pension, disability and such, except for certain casual nurses in Alberta who have agreed to work a minimum of 0.4 full time equivalent. At least that's what the UNA contract says; the contract was ratified a year ago yesterday but Human Resources has still not worked out the kinks in that plan or the weekend worker plan as well as several others... It took them a year to figure out the market adjustment for part-timers and they still didn't get it right. That's one of the big problems with health care negotiations in Alberta; we don't have the right to strike, so they can string us along as long as possible before meeting the terms of our collective agreement, and the labour board will always side with them. And now that we're all one big happy family (health region) and are employed by Ron Liepert, who knows what will happen? We only know it won't be good.