Attention: All Local 2 & 14 Income Assistance, Employment Support Services, Social Workers – re: vacation scheduling

Concerns regarding the scheduling of vacation within the DCS were brought to NSGEU in 2017. The concerns mainly involved members working in Income Assistance or Employment Support Services. A number of grievances were filed as a result of the Employer arbitrarily restricting the amount of Employees being off at any one given time, also known as the “50% rule.”

Since the filing of the grievances, the Employer has been actively working on a solution and recognized there was a problem. Furthermore, a recent adjudication decision was awarded to the Union as it related to the same issue involving members working for Service NS. For details and more information about this decision, please click on this link:

/nsgeu-is-successful-in-a-decision-for-civil-service-vacation-scheduling/

In response to the grievances filed in 2017, the Union was provided assurance through the Deputy Minister’s office that they would no longer apply the 50% rule.

The Employer committed to adhere to the decision of Adjudicator Archibald.

However, it appears that this is not occurring when it comes to the 2018/2019 annual vacation requests.

We understand that a number of our members have been denied their vacations by their managers. We are reasonably concluding they are continuing to utilize this 50% rule. The Union is actively working with the Public Service Commission, who is also working with the Senior Management Team to resolve the miscommunication and the vacation denials.

Although we are hopeful there will be a resolve to the matter, your Employee Relations Officer, Dustin Rioux, wishes to meet with you. At the meeting we will review what has occurred, the adjudication decision, and what are the next steps will be if the Union does not get a resolve.

When: April 4th, 2018

Time: 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Where: Holiday Inn Express, New Glasgow

Please make every effort to attend the meeting and please don’t be deterred if you arrive after 5:00 p.m. NSGEU will reimburse those members that attend for travel and child or eldercare.