2023 Nursing Leadership and Practice Premiums Arbitration Award

Nursing Bargaining Unit Members: Locals 101, 104, 193, 195

 2023 Nursing Leadership and Practice Premiums – Arbitration Award

The NSGEU filed policy grievances against Nova Scotia Health and the IWK regarding their refusal to assess and pay the Leadership and Practice Premiums that nurses applied for on/before October 31^st, 2023.

In February 2025, the parties met before an arbitrator to review the case.

This week, we were notified that NSGEU was successful in this arbitration!

Arbitrator Karen Hollet has ordered the following:

• The employers must process the applications that were received from NSGEU nurses by October 31^st, 2023;
• For nurses who were receiving the Designated Unit Premium:
  • If you applied for the leadership and/or practice premium by October 31^st, 2023, and
  • You chose to opt-out of the Designated Unit Premium within 60 days of the collective agreement being signed,
  • Your 2023 application must also be processed by the employer.

The full decision can be read here.

The employers will now start processing these 2023 Premium applications. This will take time. For example, the regular application to payment process is approximately six weeks.

The union has engaged with the employers to determine an approximate timeline, or if there will be any further action required to identify the applications that were received by managers by October 31^st, 2023.

The union thanks you all for stepping forward in supporting this grievance and appreciates your further patience as we work with the employers to have the applications processed and paid accordingly.