PEIUPSE health arbitration award released

Arbitration brings improvements to PEIUPSE/NUPGE health members.

Charlottetown (10 May 2013) – Negotiations between the PEI Union of Public Sector Employees (PEIUPSE/NUPGE) health bargaining unit and Health PEI moved to mediated arbitration on April 23 and April 24.

Arbitration panel ruling

At arbitration, both parties provided the Arbitrator, Tom Kutner, what they wanted as an agreeable outcome for negotiations. Tom Kutner and the Board, which included Robert Dunn (employer representative) and Linda Power (union representative), reviewed proposals and issued an award based on mutual agreement between the parties.

The new collective agreement spans a five year period from April 1, 2012 until March 31, 2017.

New collective agreement include increases to wages, benefits and job security

The following are some highlights from the new collective agreement:

• a wage increase of nine per cent, which includes two per cent in April 2012, one per cent in April 2013, in April 2014, and in April 2015, and two per cent in April 2016 and in April 2017
• a shift premium increase from $2.50 to $2.75
• a weekend premium increase from $1.25 to $1.50
• an increase in bereavement benefits
• a no layoff memorandum of agreement
• an increase in the parental leave benefit from 75 per cent to 80 per cent and
• an increase in the health development training fund.

Q & A meetings to happen in May and June

Debbie Bovyer, PEIUPSE President and members of the bargaining team will be at locations
throughout the province in May and June to answer questions and provide further details about the collective agreement. Members will receive notices with the dates, times and locations for these meetings.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE