The union representing home support employees at the VON in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, says it’s hopeful that problems with their payroll system are now being addressed.
CUPE National Representative Kim Cail says, “They are working with us to resolve some of these longstanding issues. Our understanding is the problems with their system are affecting all VON employees across Canada, management and union alike.
“VON has put a number of fail safes and timelines in place for when things would be fixed, but some of the timelines have not been met. They did agree to give what they called ‘pay advances’ to employees that requested them,” she says.
Cail says CUPE filed grievances at the end of April 2011 regarding the series of problems with payroll.
“They have also agreed to pay out some outstanding retroactive pay, if employees request it, understanding that this may cause an overpayment and the employees would end up owing VON money that they would then have to recoup over three to four pay periods,” she explains.
“The pay cheque problem has improved, but because there has been so much confusion since it emerged in January of this year, it’s been quite the mess to sort through,” she says.
CUPE Local 3953 represents 100 employees with the VON who provide home support to all of Cumberland County.