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The Labour Relations Board issued an oral decision today on expanded rights for displaced employees. The Board’s ruling comes after HEU and other unions applied to provide expanded rights for workers facing displacement under the severely restricted provisions of Bill 29.

The full written decision will be issued on Tuesday, August 20 and will be immediately posted on the HEU website.

Many details remain to be worked out, but here are some highlights from the decision:
  • Facility Subsector workers who are direct employees of the five Regional Health Authorities are covered by the decision (the Community Subsector and the Provincial Health Authority are not covered at this time).
  • Displaced employees at these workplaces now have an Expanded Protection Zone in which they can exercise their bumping and recall rights, their right to register for casual work (within some limits) and access unfilled vacancies, including promotions.
  • The new Expanded Protection Zones are as follows:
    Northern Health Authority (3) - Northwest, Northeast, Northern Interior
    Interior Health Authority (4) - East Kootenay, Kootenay Boundary, Okanagan, Thompson Cariboo
    Fraser Health Authority (2) - Fraser Valley, Simon Fraser/South Fraser
    Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (1 only)
    Vancouver Island Health Authority (2) - South Vancouver Island, Central/North Vancouver Island
  • The decision covers all the unions in the Facilities Subsector. A single seniority list for all direct health authority employees, including members of HEU, BCGEU, IUOE and other unions in the Facilties Subsector, will be developed for each Expanded Protection Zone.
  • The effective date for these expanded rights is June 28, 2002.
  • The Labour Board recognizes that this is a complex matter and further mediation with HEABC may be necessary in the future.
HEU will provide further updates after the written decision has been issued.