In late August of 2024, CUPE Local 387 settled its Grievance with the Employer regarding the Employer’s failure to provide the minimum illness or injury leave days prescribed by the BC Employment Standards Act. You will find a copy of that settlement agreement here.
As a result of this settlement, the Union and the Employer consider the grievance resolved, and the following changes are coming to short-term sick leave at the City, Library and Police Board:
- Starting January 1st, 2025, the Employer will pay all employees for the first five (5) sick days, in accordance with the Employment Standards Act. This will no longer be funded by premiums previously paid by bargaining unit employees to the self-funded sick plan. This should result in a reduction of premiums paid by members.
- The Union’s Short-Term Sick Leave Plan will continue to cover short-term sick leaves from the sixth (6th) day of sick leave through day 10.
In addition to these changes, the Employer will pay the Union’s Short-Term Sick Plan 70% of regular wages for all regular and temporary full- and part-time employees who received up to five (5) sick days per year from April 1, 2022, up to December 31, 2024. The Union’s Short-Term Sick Plan will be responsible for managing the distribution of these funds once they are received from the Employer. Again, this should result in a reduction of premiums paid by members to the Short-Term Sick Plan, therefore saving money for our members.
In addition to the terms of the settlement agreement, it is important to clarify further what your rights are under the section of the Employment Standards Act. Quoting, in part, from a recent arbitrated decision, ‘Auxiliary Employees are entitled to claim paid sick leave under Section 49.1(1)(a) of the Employment Standards Act where they are called by their Employer with the offer of a work assignment, and they would have accepted the assignment “but for” an illness or injury. This interpretation accords with the express intentions of the Legislature that all workers, including casual employees, are entitled to five days of paid leave for personal illness or injury after 90 consecutive days of employment, and that “[n]obody should be forced to make [the] decision to go to work sick or stay home and lose wages”. Whether an employee would otherwise have worked a particular assignment is a question of fact that may need to be determined on a case-by-case basis.’