CCACs Say It's Time For ONA to Come Back to the Table
TORONTO, Feb. 5, 2015 /CNW/ - To date, only one Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) has been able to reach a settlement with the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA). The offer the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant (HNHB) CCAC made to its ONA employees was accepted: similar offers were made by all other CCACs and were rejected by ONA.
"We are disappointed that ONA rejected our offers for settlement in nine of the CCACs," says Megan Allen-Lamb, CEO, North Simcoe Muskoka CCAC and provincial spokesperson for the CCACs. "These offers were consistent with the offer accepted at the HNHB CCAC and the settlements with our other employees represented across the province by CUPE and OPSEU. It is time for ONA to recognize that we are not the same as hospitals and it is time to come back to the table to bargain."
Historically, the CCACs have reached similar settlements with all of the employees within each individual CCAC. The outcomes reached in other sectors have not outweighed the outcomes reached for employees working side by side in each CCAC.
The unionization of employees across the fourteen CCACs is different and varies within each CCAC. CUPE represents employee units in eight CCACs, ONA represents employee units in 10 CCACs, and OPSEU represents employee units in five CCACs. All of the collective agreements for OPSEU, ONA and CUPE expired in 2014. The CCACs have been able to reach voluntarily settlements with both CUPE and OPSEU.
You need only look as far as our recent settlements with both CUPE and OPSEU to understand the reasonableness of the CCACs' offer to ONA:
- CUPE represents Care Coordinators, Therapists, Technical and Administrative employees in eight CCACs. Those CCACs are Central West, Mississauga Halton, Champlain, South East, South West, Central East, Erie St. Clair, and Waterloo Wellington.
- The four-year agreement reached with CUPE in April 2014 included a 0.7% wage increase, plus a 0.7% lump sum payment in each year of the agreement.
- OPSEU represents Care Coordinators, Therapists, Technical, and Administrative employees in five CCACs. Those CCACs are Champlain, Central East, Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant, North Simcoe Muskoka and North East.
- The three-year agreement reached with OPSEU in October 2014 included a 1.4% lump sum payment in the first year, a 1.0% wage increase plus a 0.7% lump sum payment in the second year, and a 1.0% wage increase plus a 1.0% lump sum payment in the third year.
- In the North East, there was an additional 1.0% wage increase recognized as a Northern Premium included in the third year.
ONA's assertion about their "two-year wage freeze" does not tell the full story.
The monetary elements of the ONA agreement that expired March 31, 2014 included a 2.75% wage increase in the third year of the contract. Employees working in the North East and North West CCACs received an additional 1.25% wage increase recognized as a Northern Premium.
"All of our employees are important and play valuable roles," says Allen-Lamb. "We are fortunate as a sector to have employees so dedicated to providing home care to patients. It's time for ONA to let these employees get back to the work they do so well."
SOURCE Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres
For more information or to arrange interviews with the CCACs' provincial spokesperson, contact: John Priddle, Director, Strategic Engagement, OACCAC, 416-272-0721, [email protected]
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