FAQ from Provincial Housing Authority Meeting (Nov 12)

The NSGEU recently met with all impacted employees regarding the current situation with your employer. Based on the meeting held on November 12 and the recent follow up meeting with our union colleagues here is an updated FAQ.

If you have any questions please contact Dustin Rioux, Lead Negotiator, at 902-424-4063.

Situation overview

As you may recall, the parties concluded negotiations as required under the Labour Board order on January 24, 2025. The parties had agreement on several provisions under the order with only a few remaining matters needing to be referred to the Labour Board. The unions came together on January 31, to meet with legal counsel and discuss the outstanding items and prepare the referral to the Labour Board. The language still at issue:

• Job posting provisions
• Temporary assignments
• Interregional mobility

Some of these issues were close to agreement. Therefore, the unions collectively applied to the Labour Board for mediation to try and resolve all outstanding matters.

Your employer, (NSPHA) replied to the union’s application, rejecting our proposal to have the board determine the remaining matters and requested a full hearing.

Your employer is seeking to establish a single bargaining unit, which would require run off votes, classification type bargaining units (inside/outside/supervisors with run off votes), and/or a mandated process by which the “multiple bargaining units and agents with speak with “one voice to the employer.”

This is an obvious attempt by the employer to try and revisit the board’s previous decisions on how to manage the results of the successorship in a proportional way that respects the long-established bargaining rights of the existing bargaining agents.

The outcome proposed by the employer would also amount to a complete waste of the many months of work already spent to get us to this point. It would be an understatement to call this poor labour relations. The employer has offered no valid reason for abandoning the work that has been completed to date.

It is with great disappointment and frustration that your employer has taken this position. The unions remain united and will fight to ensure each union continues with their representation and collective agreements, as outlined in the order as issued by the Labour Board. The position of your employer is resulting in unnecessary stress within the workplaces. If NSPHA truly wanted to ensure housing was a priority in this province, they would stop fighting the unions and allow members to focus on providing the important housing services they are committed and dedicated to providing for Nova Scotians.

When will be Labour Board hearing be held?

A case management conference took place with the Labour Board over the summer. At that meeting hearing dates were rescheduled for December 15 to 18.

Has any progress been made over the summer/fall?

Not as much as the union’s would like. The civil service award established a wage pattern of a total of 5.5% (a combined 2% and 3.5%) in year one and 2% in year two. The unions did reach out to the employer asking for discussions to see if there was a way to agree to the civil service wage pattern while the remaining issues moved to the hearing. The employer has yet to meet on wages.

Why not launch a media campaign against the government/employer?

There could be an opportunity to launch such a campaign, however, it must be timed strategically to have the most impact. At this point the union’s focus is on preparing the best case for the hearing. Any campaign has the risk of diverting attention from the hearing and motivate the employer/government to propose further concessions.

The union is committed to advocating strongly for the best interest of our members. That includes, a media campaign if that is deemed to be to the members advantage and benefit.

How will the government’s new vacancy management policy impact these negotiations or our work going forward?

The union has sent a letter to the Public Service Commission to clarify how this new policy will impact the provincial housing authority. Once more is known it will be shared with members.