The Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA), which represents approximately 60,000 people delivering health services throughout British Columbia, has ratified a new agreement under government’s Shared Recovery Mandate.

Key priorities of the 2022 mandate include:

• protecting the services that people in British Columbia depend on;
• improving health care and preparing for future needs and challenges; and
• supporting a strong economic recovery that includes everyone in B.C.

These negotiations are focused on providing a fair and reasonable offer to public-sector workers that includes significant inflation protection, while ensuring that government has the resources to continue to invest in building a stronger province for everyone.

This bargaining unit includes hundreds of skilled health-care occupations, including care aides, lab assistants, health records clerks, dietary and cleaning staff, nursing unit assistants, and trades and maintenance workers. The nine-union FBA is led by the Hospital Employees’ Union, which represents about 93% of health-care workers covered by the agreement.

The ratified agreement includes:

• a three-year term
• general wage increases:
  • Year 1 – a flat increase of $0.25/hour, which provides a greater percentage increase for lower paid employees (for FBA workers, an average of 0.98%) plus 3.24%
  • Year 2 – 5.5% plus a potential cost of living adjustment to a maximum of 6.75%
  • Year 3 – 2% plus a potential cost of living adjustment to a maximum of 3%
• a negotiable “flexibility allocation” of up to 0.25% in years 1 and 2 to support mutually beneficial outcomes for both parties.
• important achievements for both parties in this round of bargaining include advancing Indigenous specific anti-racism initiatives, collaborating on recruitment and retention strategies, reducing employee turnover, and preserving flexibility that supports better service provision, while supporting workers.

Currently, there are just over 137,000 public-sector employees covered by tentative or ratified agreements reached under B.C.’s Shared Recovery Mandate.

Learn More:

To learn more about public-sector bargaining in B.C., visit: www.gov.bc.ca/psecbargaining