Date: June 27, 2025
Sisters, Brothers, and Friends,
Your SEIU-West bargaining committee met with the SAHO bargaining committee for five days during the week of June 21-27. During those five days, we spent a total of 3 hours and 47 minutes negotiating face-to-face with SAHO.
We remain committed to bargain the language and wages in our Collective Agreement that our members have told us are important to them: language surrounding vacation scheduling, leaves of absence, seniority, and our call-in system. SAHO insists on maintaining their proposals that gut our CBA and insert take-away or concession language. We do not agree. For example, the Employer wants increased access to Employee health information, even if it is not related to a disability or WCB claim. The Employer wants to have discipline and work performance appraisals follow you from one bargaining unit to another you may move to within the SHA.
Impasse is described as “a situation in which no progress can be made, or no advancement is possible”. We believe we have reached impasse on several Articles and have informed SAHO and the Ministry of Health. Some of the Articles we believe we have reached impasse on are as follows.
- Article 3.04 Progressive discipline. The Employer demands to keep discipline on your file for five years for resident abuse; however, they refuse to define what constitutes “resident abuse” and it may even include refusing to smile while saying good morning to a patient/client/resident. Again, the Employer wants to have discipline and work performance appraisals follow you from one bargaining unit to another you may move to within the SHA.
- The Union disagrees with SAHO’s insistence at using the term “employers” rather than “employer” and the use of the term “relief worker”. The term “employers”, along with SAHOs assertion they do not represent the affiliate Employers, means there is no guarantee that SHA affiliates would abide by the same rules as the SHA regarding administering the Collective Agreement. The term “relief worker” is in contrast with our current language of casual worker. What’s the difference, you ask? Working as a relief worker would mean that you would bid on the potential to be called in for a shift but if they don’t call you, you get an unpaid day off waiting for a call. If you do receive a call, don’t get too excited about making a living, as your shift can be cancelled at any time.
- Article 24.06 verification of illness. We want the Employer to cover the cost of sick notes when they require you to provide one. SAHO refuses to entertain this as a possibility. Of note, the Government of Saskatchewan has recently passed legislation limiting the instances where the Employer can ask for illness verification.
Our glimmer of hope is the Bargaining Committee’s resolve to move articles to impasse when there is clearly no willingness on the Employer’s part to move on the issues being discussed, with the goal of moving bargaining along at a quicker rate. When there are continually no meaningful proposals from SAHO, we see no reason to keep discussing the issues at hand.
We will continue to bargain in good faith and keep the lines of communication open for more meaningful and realistic proposals from SAHO for our members.
We plan to meet at the table again the week of July 21-25. Bargaining does not take a summer holiday as we are committed to a resolve and a new contract as quickly as possible.
We have increased our meetings with our coalition partners SGEU and CUPE to discuss common issues surrounding bargaining and have all provided our common table lists to SAHO. We continue to work out the logistics of providing essential services, in the event of job action related to bargaining.
If you have Collective Agreement questions or issues, contact the Member Resource Center at 1-888-999-7348 ext. 1, email [email protected], or complete the Contact Us form on our website, www.seiuwest.ca.
In Solidarity on behalf of the SEIU-West Bargaining Committee
Lisa Zunti
President
SEIU-West
Your SEIU-West SAHO Provincial Bargaining Committee:
CHR: Janice Platzke (SEIU-West Treasurer) • FHHR: Brenda Berry, Barbara Bubyn • HHR: Colleen Denniss • SHR: Rhonda Bzdel, Chris Clark, Jeanne Javinal, Carla Saworski, Charlene Sarafin • Extendicare: Kevin Martin • Staff: Bob Laurie (Dir. of Bargaining and Contract Enforcement), Russell Doell (Deputy Dir. of Bargaining and Contract Enforcement • President: Lisa Zunti
Click here for a printable PDF version of this Bargaining Update.