The B.C. government announced today that more than 5,000 unionized long-term care and assisted living workers will transition to the province-wide Facilities Collective Agreement over the next two years, improving fairness for workers and stability in seniors’ care, as part of a new tri-partite agreement with the Facilities Bargaining Association and health employers.
“This agreement is an important step towards restoring a level playing field for working and caring conditions in provincially funded seniors’ care homes – getting labour standards back to what existed before 2002,” says Hospital Employees’ Union secretary-business manager Lynn Bueckert.
“And with common labour standards and fair working and caring conditions, seniors and others who require long-term care and assisted living will benefit from better care.”
As part of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed between the HEU-led multi-union Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA), the Health Employers Association of B.C. (HEABC) and the Province of B.C., operators of care homes receiving a threshold of provincial funding, and who directly employ workers, will be designated as members of HEABC and subject to collective agreements HEABC has reached with health care unions.
“For years, HEU members have provided skilled, compassionate care within a fragmented seniors’ care system marked by significant gaps in wages, benefits and workplace protections,” says Bueckert. “These inequities resulted from past BC Liberal government policies that encouraged privatization and subcontracting, allowing operators to opt out of province-wide collective agreements.”
Those health policies weakened care and disproportionately harmed a workforce made up mainly of women and racialized workers. They drove down wages, benefits and working conditions, creating high turnover and staffing shortages across the sector.
Today’s announcement reflects decades of advocacy by HEU members and this government’s commitment to restoring high-quality labour standards in the sector.
“Restoring common standards helps rebuild a stable workforce and ensures seniors receive consistent, high-quality care,” says Bueckert. “This is about undoing bad policy decisions and restoring accountability in government-supported care settings.”
While this is a significant accomplishment, the union emphasizes that not all seniors’ care workers are covered by this agreement.
“We know there’s more to do,” says Bueckert. “We’re going to keep fighting until every worker in seniors care has the wages, benefits and pensions they deserve. We won’t stop until the job’s done.”
The MOA reached as part of a tentative agreement is subject to ratification by the parties, expected to be completed by December 19, 2025.
HEU represents more than 60,000 health care workers across B.C., including about 28,000 working directly with seniors in long-term care and assisted living.
Backgrounder
- By 2001, virtually all unionized staff in provincially funded hospitals and long-term care homes were covered by master collective agreements providing standard wages, benefits and working conditions.
- Achieving standard working and caring conditions in provincially funded care homes, including for-profit and non-profit operators, evolved over many decades and ensured equity for residents and workers.
- Starting in 2002, the former BC Liberal government took measures that resulted in the fragmentation of working and caring conditions across the long-term care sector.
- These measures facilitated subcontracting of work and provided other mechanisms for new and existing long-term care operators to avoid membership in the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) and thus not subject to provincial standard collective agreements.
- Bill 29 (Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act, 2002) and Bill 94 (Health Sector Partnerships Act, 2003) enabled widespread contracting out and contract-flipping in health care, excluded health care workers from key job security protections including successorship provisions in the Labour Relations Code, and ensured that new care home operators were not subject to HEABC membership and provincial standard collective agreements (key provisions of these bills were later found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada).
- In 2009, the BC Liberal cabinet provided existing long-term care operators the option of giving up HEABC membership and, as a result, no longer being subject to provincial standard agreements.
- Many public and non-profit facilities were closed and replaced by for-profit homes outside HEABC collective agreements.
- In 2020, in response to pandemic pressures, the BC NDP government provided wage levelling in long-term care and assisted living. This policy subsidized low-wage employers and ensured staffing stability.
- Even though wages are currently levelled, workers are leaving contracted seniors’ care sites for public facilities with superior benefits and pensions.
- Contracted seniors’ care sites rarely offer pensions, and their benefits are weaker than those in the FBA.
- For example, workers at HEABC sites have a pension and 18 sick days; workers at other sites may have less than half that sick leave and no pension.
- Since 2003, for-profit LTC beds have grown by 50 per cent, increasing reliance on private operators.
- A 2018 report from the Office of the Seniors’ Advocate for B.C. found fewer than one-third of contracted LTC operators were paying HEABC-agreement wages and benefits (by contrast, the vast majority of unionized workers were covered by HEABC agreements in 2001).
- In 2018, the BC NDP government repealed Bill 29 and Bill 94, and in 2019, strengthened successorship protections for workers subjected to contract flipping in long-term care.
- In health care, the practice of contract-flipping resulted in entire care teams being fired from nursing homes. Workers were invited to reapply for the same job with a new contractor, but usually at a lower rate of pay, and with the loss of their union and any benefits related to the length of their service. In some cases, workers were subjected to multiple contract flips, with devastating impacts on residents and workers.
- In 2025, as part of the recent Facilities tentative agreement, the multi-union FBA, HEABC and the Ministry of Health reached a Memorandum of Agreement that outlines a process to designate care home operators who meet certain criteria as eligible HEABC members.
- The rollout will take place in two phases, each targeting 50 per cent of the long-term care and assisted living sites deemed eligible for membership.
- The first group of workers will be brought into the public sector in phase one, from October 2026 to September 2027; the second group will join the public sector in phase two, from October 2027 to September 2028.
- The B.C. government will update its regulations to support these changes.
- The MOA is subject to ratification by members of the FBA and HEABC, which is expected to be completed by December 19, 2025.