CCRA Update: Hearing Date Scheduled for Judicial Review

The hearing date for Nova Scotia Health’s application for a judicial review on the award regarding the Continuing Care Referral Assistants (CCRAs) has been scheduled for June 20th, 2022.

You will recall that back in mid-November, the NSGEU received an arbitration decision that would see LPNs who work as Continuing Care Referral Assistants (CCRAs) receive the same 12 per cent increase that was awarded to our LPNs in June of 2020 on a go-forward basis. The union was preparing to move forward to fight for retro, as well, when we received word that the employer planned to appeal the Arbitrator’s decision to award CCRAs parity with LPNs, as they felt the arbitrator’s award is unreasonable. They still must prove this in front of a judge, and the NSGEU will have an opportunity to participate in this process, so we can advocate that the award was, in fact, reasonable.

We remain disappointed that government and employers continue to fight us on this very basic issue of fairness, particularly at a time that has been so difficult for all health care workers, but we are prepared to continue to push back on this issue, as it is a matter of principle for us and the members who are involved. It is fundamentally unfair to pay workers a lesser rate of pay when they are required by their employer to hold the same level of education and training.

We remain committed to fighting for a fair resolve on this issue and will keep you updated on any new developments as they occur.

We have launched an online campaign that will allow people to send messages to government to ask them to withdraw their request for a judicial review. Please take a moment to fill the form out, and ask your friends and family to do the same.