Vancouver/CMEDIA: A tentative agreement has reportedly been reached between the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) and the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA).
After almost one year of negotiations between the HSPBA and the HEABC, BC’s 25,000 specialized health professionals reached a tentative agreement in the early hours of Friday morning.
“Members sent us to the bargaining table to make improvements to wages, classifications, work-life balance, recognition and respect, and partnership for quality health care…This tentative agreement achieves gains in all these areas, despite the province’s significant fiscal challenges…wage increases of 12% over four years…equal to that offered to other public service professionals in BC. To address working conditions and service improvements and deal with professional shortages driving wait times and cancellations for the public, gains have also been made in classifications, scheduling, premiums, special leave, occupational health and safety, professional development funding, dedicated steward time and professional fees,” said Jeanne Meyers, lead negotiator for the HSPBA and Executive Director of Health Sciences Association of BC (HSA).
Based on the main elements of the 2025 Balanced Measures Mandate along with some additional funding to support service delivery, the tentative agreement aims to improve working conditions for health-science professionals across the sector.
Also included in the agreement are measures to address critical staffing pressures, significant investment in professional development and new reimbursements for professional fees that put HSPBA members on a more equal footing with other sector-based occupations.
Further details about the tentative agreement will be available subject to the ratification process that will soon be underway.
Covering just over 25,000 health-science professionals working as medical technologists, medical radiation technologists and physiotherapists, the agreement between the HEABC and the HSPBA’s classifications range from medical and laboratory disciplines to pharmacists, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers and physiotherapists.
While supporting the government’s key priorities, negotiations under the 2025 Balanced Measures Mandate would protect and strengthen critical services in B.C. ‘s public sector, to maintain labour stability in a complex round of bargaining and to support the Province’s efforts to find operational efficiencies that preserve front-line services.
