Support for Our Essential Workers
Pandemic Pay: The Provincial Government announced a special premium of $4 / hour for front line workers in community social services for sixteen weeks from March 15, 2020 to July 4, 2020. The government will have a requisition process for us to complete to get this funding for our employees and once we have received this funding, we will be paying it to our employees as a lump sum. The government has not announced this requisition process yet though, so we don’t know how quickly this process can be completed and payments processed to our employees. We will keep you informed.
Emergency Funding for Home Share Contractors: The Provincial Government approved $35 Million for CLBC to use to supplement existing services due to the pandemic. Home Share Contractors have received monthly supplements for April, May and June, and CLBC recently announced an extension of this program for July and August 2020.
Recruitment and Retention Funding for Non-Union Agencies: The Provincial government just announced increases for non-union agencies to address serious recruitment and retention issues that face non-union agencies because government funded big increases for unionized positions and did not provide the same increases for non-union staff. The new funding allows us to provide an average 3.5% additional increase, effective April 2020. There will be a new pay grid effective from July 9, 2020 and employees will get retroactive pay back to April 2020.
Equal Work Equal Pay BC – We need your Support!
Yes, the government provided the 3.5% increase for recruitment and retention to non-union agencies for April 2020, but this does not address the ongoing issue of equal pay for equal work in the community social services sector. There was a 3.35% increase in April 2019 that our non-union employees did not get. There is another increase scheduled for April 2021 that government has not committed to funding for non-union employees. Please go to the www.equalpaybc.ca website, click on the Send Your Letter link, and send a letter as an employee, or as a supporter (family, friends, self-advocates, neighbours!).
- Enter your address first, and your MLA will be selected from the data base.
- You can click PREVIEW to see how the letter will look
- Click “I accept the Privacy Policy”
- Click “SEND LETTER”
There have already been over 900 letters submitted since our launch on Monday, so please support our front line workers and send a letter!
Let me know if you have any questions.
Ernie Baatz
Executive Director
Spectrum Society for Community Living