MEMO:

November 13th, 1998

TO: All Employees of Spectrum Society for Community Living

FROM: Ernie Baatz, Executive Director

Wage Equity Update: 2nd Pay raise effective November 24th, 1998!

Updates on current strategies:

1. Lawsuit: CSSEA has filed a statement of defence, but the other two parties, PSEC and the Ministry for Children and Families have not yet. The next steps will be to get a Judge's ruling on the statements of defence.

2. The CSSEA Annual General Meeting was a resounding success for the Wage Equity Coalition. Four motions were passed by the entire membership of CSSEA, laying out guidelines for compensation that required equitable wages for ALL workers in the social services sector.

New strategy:

1. At the CSSEA AGM, new benefits packages were offered. We had explored these options in the past, but found that while Spectrum could save money, you, the employees would have to pay more as the the quoted LTD rates were three times higher than Spectrum's rates through Standard Life. Now, CSSEA's plans are more flexible. We can choose the parts that are cheaper and keep our existing benefits in areas that make sense. Look for more information on the new benefits, cheaper for Spectrum and better for you, in the next month.

In exploring wage equity, we have found that it gets challenging when you are comparing apples and oranges. For example, many of our staff work 40 hours per week, while most of the employees at DDA work 37.5 hours per week. It would be more relevant then to compare the weekly wage than to compare the hourly wage. For example, if you work 40 hours per week at $13.00 per hour, you make $520 per week. If you can only work 37.5 hours, you must get paid $13.87 per hour to make the same weekly wage.

Effective November 24th, 1998, the following pay scales are in effect:

Position

Start

1 year

2 year

3 year hourly

3 year weekly

Asleep Night

7.30

7.60

7.90

8.20

451.00

Awake Night

10.85

11.60

12.35

12.85

514.00

CSW

12.10

12.55

13.05

13.55

542.00

Manager

15.15

15.85

16.60

17.35

694.00

Coordinators

17.75

18.50

19.25

20.00

800.00

Steps toward wage equity:

Our Goal - March 31, 99 - Top CSW wage of $14.00

November 24th , 1998 - Top CSW wage $13.55

September 24th, 1998 - Top CSW wage $13.45

Stay tuned for more updates.

Ernie, Susan, Aaron, Anne Maria

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