Your collective agreement is a legal contract between HEU members and the employer.
It sets out the terms and conditions of your work, including:
- your wages
- your benefits
- the obligations and rights of both you and your employer
- how your union and your employer must deal with disputes
The collective agreement is negotiated through bargaining.
Find your collective agreement
Your workplace may have its own collective agreement. Or if you are in one of our three Bargaining Associations, you will share a collective agreement with other HEU workplaces. .
Either way, your collective agreement works the same. It's a powerful tool for defending your rights and protecting you from unfair treatment.
To get the most out of your collective agreement, read it and get familiar with it. If there are parts you don’t understand, ask your local shop steward for help.
Members standing up for their rights is how the collective agreement is enforced.
Your shop steward is the first line of defense.
Your right to shop steward representation
All HEU members have the right to shop steward representation under their collective agreement.
Shop stewards:
- provide guidance to members
- defend contract rights
- file grievances
- advocate for those whose rights have been violated
When members are called into a management meeting that could be disciplinary, they have a right to bring a shop steward with them.
And if you’re in a non-disciplinary meeting that turns disciplinary, you have the right to stop the meeting and request a steward.
If you believe you’re being treated unfairly
Contact your steward if you believe:
- you are being treated unfairly by a supervisor
- you have a conflict with a co-worker that you can’t resolve on your own
- the employer is violating the collective agreement
- the employer is violating labour laws
Contact your steward as soon as possible after the incident. Try to remember clearly everything that happened. Taking notes can help.
Your steward will gather information from you about the incident, and can explain how it relates to the collective agreement. They will advise you how to proceed.
Stewards also have access to expert help from HEU servicing representatives, lawyers, and health and safety specialists.
If you don’t know the name of your shop steward, call the HEU office at 604-438-5000 or 1-800-663-5813 (toll-free) or email info@heu.org.
The grievance procedure
If the union believes the employer is violating the collective agreement or violating labour law, they have a right to file a grievance.
Grievances are not filed by individual workers. They are filed by the union, on behalf of a worker or a group of workers. This starts the “grievance procedure” which is outlined in your collective agreement.
Some grievances are settled quickly between the employer and the union. Other difficult issues may proceed to arbitration, which is overseen by the provincial Minister of Labour.
Most disputes are resolved without filing a grievance.
What if I don’t have a current collective agreement?
Collective agreements are set for a period of time, usually two or three years. Bargaining will usually start within 90 days before a contract is set to expire.
Sometimes a collective agreement expires before bargaining is completed for the new one. When that happens, the previous agreement will continue to cover you until the new one is finalized.
If bargaining is late, the new agreement will often include language to make pay increases or other benefits retroactive. For example, if the new contract provides a pay raise, you would receive back pay in that amount dating back to when the previous contract expired.
If your workplace has just joined HEU, you will not have a collective agreement yet. Every collective agreement needs to be bargained with your employer. Until you have one, you are still only covered by the B.C. Labour Code.
But during this time, your employer is not allowed to punish you for joining the union, or prevent union representatives from communicating with you. If the employer interferes in this way, the union will file a complaint with the Labour Relations Board.
Finding your collective agreement
Facilities sector
Three out of four HEU members are covered by the Facilities Collective Agreement. This covers most members at hospitals, publicly-operated and affiliated long-term care sites, and other health authority operations such as those delivered as shared services. More than 270 job classifications in our union are covered by this agreement.
Facilities Collective Agreement
Community Health sector
Some HEU members work for community health agencies providing everything from home support to day programs. They are covered by the Community Health Collective Agreement.
Community Health Collective Agreement
Community Social Services sector
Some HEU members provide residential and community-based support services to people with developmental disabilities, women and children, and First Nations clients. Many of these members work under the Community Social Services Collective Agreement.
Community Social Services Collective Agreement
Our non-public sector
As a result of privatization and contracting out, many support workers in hospitals, who provide housekeeping and dietary services, are employed by multinational corporations. Most have joined HEU and we have negotiated a number of agreements including with Acciona (VIHA), Aramark (FHA), Compass (VIHA), Compass (PHSA), Compass-Marquise and Sodexo.
Nearly one in five HEU members works under an independent agreement with private or non-profit facility operators or subcontractors. Dozens of different collective agreements cover these work sites.
Find your independent collective agreement
Learn more about how bargaining works.