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FULL- AND PART-TIME housekeepers laid-off as a result of contracting out at fourteen facilities in the Fraser Health Authority are eligible for training money and may attend career transition workshops at the employer’s expense under a labour adjustment plan reached between the Hospital Employees’ Union, other health unions and the health authority.

There are a number of elements to the agreement including:

  • Access to as much as $1,000 towards enrolment in career retraining programs before the end of the one-year recall period;

  • Information sessions, provided and paid for by the FHA, covering a number of subjects including the displacement process, retirement and career transition;

  • A joint union/management working group to address issues regarding access to casual work for regular and casual workers; and

  • Funding for two HEU members (peer counsellors) who will assist laid-off workers.

Go to http://www.heu.org/fha-labouradjustment.pdf to download the full labour adjustment plan in pdf format.

To access pdf files you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader which is available free from .http://www.adobe.com/

Earlier this month, more than 800 housekeepers throughout the FHA received lay-off notices after the health authority announced that it had contracted out housekeeping services to French multinational Sodexho.

Displacement notice for workers at Delta, Eagle Ridge, Peace Arch and Ridge Meadows hospitals expires on December 4, 2003; for workers at Chilliwack General, Fraser Canyon, Mission Memorial and MSA hospitals and Fellburn and Queen’s Park care centres on January 15, 2004; and for those at Burnaby, Langley Memorial, Royal Columbian and Surrey Memorial hospitals on February 7, 2004.

HEU has a special website for laid off workers