Access Facilitator/Case Aid Update #2

Dear Case Aides and Access Facilitators, working in the Department of Community Services,

As you are aware, the Employer has reorganized your roles and responsibilities within the Department. Although we were not consulted, we did raise our objections to these changes, based on our conversations with the membership.We informed the employer we thought these changes would have a negative impact on the services you provide.

The Employer chose to proceed despite our objections and met with members on November 22 to inform you of the changes.

Initially, the Employer informed us their intention was to eliminate the Access Facilitator job and replace it with the Case Aide job which would have resulted in a significant reduction of the salary from TE18 to TE10. Permanent full-time and part-time employees would have their salaries frozen at their current rate for a limited time and then reduced to TE10. We responded by pointing out that permanent full-time and part-time employees were protected by Article 37 and Memorandum of Agreement #2 of the Master Agreement which required the Employer to, at a minimum, permanently freeze their salaries. We maintained we could accept nothing less than permanent salary protection for our members where they would continue to receive annual step increments along with any negotiated economic increases. We informed the Employer if they didn’t agree we would trigger Article 37 and Memorandum of Agreement #2.

We are pleased to report that eventually the Employer capitulated to our position with respect to permanent employees.

Unfortunately, Article 37 and Memorandum of Agreement #2 does not apply to relief employees and the Employer refused to extend any salary protection to relief Access Facilitators.

Our review of information provided to us by the Employer led us to the tentative conclusion that the Employer has been using relief employees to avoid filling permanent positions. We asked for them to create permanent positions and were initially denied.

We filed a grievance pursuant to Article 11.17 of the Master Agreement which resulted in further discussions with the Employer.

We are pleased to announce we have just recently reached an agreement on the creation of 33 new permanent positions as of March 1 for our members to apply for. You can view the Memorandum of Agreement here. 

The Employer has agreed that both relief Access Facilitators and relief Case Aides will be able to access Article 13.02 and fill the new permanent positions through an expression of interest rather than being required to compete. Up to 15 of these new permanent positions will be eligible for red-circled salary protection.

We are currently arranging for a telephone town hall to discuss the agreement for new permanent positions and next steps.

mediate concerns or questions, please contact the NSGEU.