NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release 2011FIN0017-000193 March 2, 2011

Ministry of Finance Ministry of Health Services

 

AGREEMENT RATIFIED WITH HEALTH SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS

 

VICTORIA – The Health Employers Association of BC has now ratified a two-year agreement with the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) under the Province’s 2010 mandate, announced Finance Minister Colin Hansen.

 

“Renegotiating agreements during these difficult economic times is a complex task, and I appreciate the hard work of the negotiators involved,” said Hansen, who is also the Health Services Minister. “These health science professionals play a vital role in our province’s health-care system, and I’m pleased that they were able to ratify this new agreement.”

 

British Columbia’s 16,000 unionized health science professionals work in B.C. hospitals and community health facilities as laboratory and medical imaging technologists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, dieticians, respiratory therapists and public health inspectors.

 

With this agreement, more than 99 per cent of B.C.’s approximately 125,000 unionized health-care workers have now signed new agreements.

 

The HSPBA bargains on behalf of employees working in the health sciences sector. The largest union is the Health Sciences Association followed by the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, Canadian Union of Public Employees, and various other unions.

 

Government has already announced its intention to control spending on wages during this round of bargaining. To protect jobs and preserve vital services British Columbians depend on, government does not have any funding for new wage increases as collective agreements are renewed.

 

There are approximately 306,000 unionized workers in occupations throughout B.C.’s public sector, the great majority of which have agreements that expired between March 31, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2010. More than two-thirds of those employees have now renegotiated agreements that were set to expire in 2010.

 

Updated bargaining information is available at: http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/psec/bargaining2010/

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Media Contact:

Sarah Harrison Communications Director Ministry of Finance 250 356-2821

 

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