In a major victory for health care workers, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has been ordered to stop engaging in practices that punish workers for being sick or injured.

In response to a grievance launched last year by the Hospital Employees’ Union and other health unions, arbitrator Vince Ready has ruled that the health authority must end the practice of denying overtime, reducing hours or threatening to fire workers for illness or injury.

Under the health authority’s so-called Attendance Wellness Program, overtime bans and reduced hours are put in place automatically for workers who experience higher than average sick time usage.

Ready ordered that the practice be stopped effective January 18 and that all overtime bans should be lifted and that any worker that has had their hours reduced under the program should have them reinstated.

HEU had said that the coercive measures not only violated workers’ rights, but in fact undermined employers’ efforts to fight the spread of influenza in health care settings.

That’s because many workers felt pressured to report to work when they were ill in order to avoid the loss of income or employment.

In fact, a poll released last fall by HEU indicated that one out of three HEU members reported to work while experiencing flu or cold symptoms because of pressure from their employer not to access sick leave.

HEU secretary-business manager Bonnie Pearson hopes that the ruling will result in health employers adopting a more enlightened approach to reducing illness and injury in health care workplaces.

“Hopefully the health authority will use this opportunity to work with health unions to develop programs that emphasize prevention and consultation rather than punishment and coercion,” says Pearson.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority’s Attendance Wellness Program was implemented in 2008.

HEU, along with the Health Sciences Association, B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, Canadian Union of Public Employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers, filed a policy grievance against the implementation of the program and hearings into the matter were held in 2011 and 2012.

Ready was not prepared to order retroactive compensation for employees who have been improperly punished under the AWP. However, he did order that current OT bans and hours reductions be immediately lifted.

http://cupe.ca/bargaining/vancouver-coastal-health-stop-punitive?utm_source=CUPE+Mailing+Lists&utm_campaign=117ec7c732-cupetoday&utm_medium=email

I remember one time when I walked past a film crew member who had asked me to stop walking a block from home, on a Sunday afternoon when the neighbourhood had been shut down for some car shots. I really needed to get home that day. It can be tedious to have to wait for a scene to be shot or as it turned out in this case for a car chase to take place. At the moment I came off the block and into my street and feeling much bothered a car came to a screeching halt and a policeman chased me as I stepped towards my home. I had not become an actor and the cop was the real deal. He attempted to reprimand. My response “piss off” as I disappeared into my apartment building. It was awkward cos not long after I had to go out again to the store. Again I was instructed where and how to walk.

Since then, that was a few years ago, I have attempted to adopt a more diplomatic approach even trying to be friendly and taking an interest in what is being filmed. Every time something is to be shot in our hood we get a notice of what it is – so it is easy for the most part to plan around it. That is of course – if you know about it, you haven’t been out of town et cetera.

There have been crazy lights, low flying helicopters, Christmas scenes (more lights), New York neighbourhoods, okay I admit I posed like a tourist for that one. But those guys were nice too, and did what they needed to do during daylight hours.

This morning as I was chucking out my recycling to the various bins – paper, newspaper, a guy appears from the lobby into the corridor – yes I am home – in my own building, and he asks me if I could be a bit quieter. I ask him – Who are you? What’s going on?

He tells me a film is being made in the lobby of my building. I mutter something and return back to my apartment realizing that I had planned to check my mail box in the lobby. I decide to get my camera. I take the elevator this time and meet a fellow neighbour armed with his cell phone – and who tells me to complain also. We step out, and I take a picture being told by a woman – “no flash”. I had already worked that one out. Further her words make me think that she thinks I’m onside. I walk into the lobby and the middle of the scene, check my mail box – ask who’s in charge. I tell him that I respect what they do but at the same time we have received absolutely no notice. I ask: “What’s more important my life or your film?” I get a few bored responses – “your life”. These guys must be making a habit of this home invasion film carry-on.

At the end of the day – I respect the industry and what they need to do. I like going to the cinema and renting DVDs. I get it. But being in media myself at least only audio – there are procedures that I adhere too, the number one being – respect.

Here’s my most recent news read, playing at the station coopradio.org today

cfronews_feb11_2013

The holiday has now been ratified into the collective agreements of Local 391 (library workers) and Local 1004 (outside workers).

Thousands of City of Vancouver workers will have to work on Family Day.

The new holiday has been legislated by the B.C. Provincial Government but is being ignored by managers at Vancouver Public Library. Outside workers are also being denied the statutory holiday.

The City says because the new stat holiday is not in the collective agreements of library and outside workers it will not pay for staff to take the day off.

Cleaners at the library will get the day off. Their union has negotiated the holiday into its new collective agreement. City Hall will also be closed.

Minister Pat Bell speaking last week in Vancouver acknowledged that H D Mining’s duty to give full effort to hiring Canadians was clearly not followed.

Sinclair says “In light of Minister Bell’s acknowledgement that process was not followed here, and that Canadians have lost confidence in the Temporary Foreign Worker program, the federal government must make its review public.

Bell’s reversal only came about after a union court application forced the release by H D Mining of the resumés the company had received, and after news reports revealed that the “highly trained miners” from H D Mining’s Chinese operations were provided only three months training before being sent underground.

The renewed talks were only made possible by strike action from members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Government Employees Union.

Just last week some five hundred family service workers were on strike in Vancouver, Kamloops, Nelson, Castlegar, Trail, Cranbrook, and Vernon.

CUPE’s community social services coordinator Cheryl Colborne said: “Our high profile job action has resulted in the employer inviting us back to the bargaining table.”

Colborne says the escalating strikes finally caught the attention of the provincial government, which in turn has urged the employer – the Community Social Services Employers’ Association to return to the table to find a deal.

Duvalier will now risk arrest should he fail to attend court, February 21st. He had been summoned on charges relating to alleged financial crimes.

A justice rights group in Haiti, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, that has been assisting alleged abuse victims of the Duvalier regime, says the call for Duvalier to attend court is a victory for his victims.

The former president returned to Haiti in 2011 after 25 years in exile. It is thought that Duvalier may have been trying to enter and leave the country quietly in an attempt to access assets in a Swiss bank account.

However two days after his arrival in the country he was arrested before being released on bail. Haiti’s current president Michel Martelly has made overtures in support of Duvalier.

The union has come under fire from both the Conservative federal government and Sun Media. The media outlet criticized the sending of post office worker union delegates to a World Social Forum event in Brazil called Free Palestine.

The CUPW website details how the Conservatives then repeated the misleading claims made by Sun Media.

The VDLC in its resolution says that it believes the accusation against the postal workers union is part of a broader assault on unions and their finances and activities.

The recent passing of Bill C-377 which amended the Income Tax Act means that unions now have to file a public information return on expenditures greater than five thousand dollars.

Speaking to labour activists at the Vancouver and District Labour Council, the New Democrat MP said that the use of cheap labour from overseas is colonialism in reverse.

In a call for action Sims told the VDLC that it’s their role as labour leaders to improve the lives of workers coming to Canada under the temporary foreign worker program and outlining her party’s positions she said that the NDP says ‘if you’re good enough to work here – you are good enough to live here.’