Health Care Update May 8th 2025

Council of Health Care Unions

Update on Leading in Atlantic Canada Committee

Dear CUPE member,

Since ratification of your collective agreement in the fall, representatives from the Council of Health Care Unions, NSH, and IWK have been diligently working on fulfilling the terms of Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) #33 (Nova Scotia Health) and #15 (IWK), also known as the Leading in Atlantic Canada Committee.

As you may recall, these two MOAs would see any classification that was found to not be leading in Atlantic Canada receive up to an additional 5 per cent paid out in two installments of up to 2.5 per cent each (the first installment effective November 1, 2024, the second effective April 1, 2025).

The Committee has met 15 times since it was struck in October, following the ratification of your collective agreement in September 2024 and the agreement being signed in December 2024. As per the MOAs, the Committee had just 90 business days to complete its work. Those 90 days are now up and the work of the Committee is now complete.

An incredible amount of research and work went into providing sound evidence and wage comparators from throughout Atlantic Canada’s public acute health care sector. This cumbersome process required sourcing and examining over 1,000 individual classifications to match job descriptions from three other provinces and 10 collective agreements.

Ultimately, there were 255 classifications that had to be reviewed by the Committee. We were able to reach agreement on 222 of these classifications, but the remaining 33 could not be agreed upon and must be referred to the arbitration panel, as outlined in the MOA. You can review the list of agreed to classifications along with implementation dates here.

To see the list of the 33 classifications being referred to the arbitration panel, click here.

This panel consists of Karen Hollett as the neutral Chair, while the employers’ nominee is Shelley Hubley, and the Council nominee is Wayne Thomas.

Parties have met with legal counsel to review the positions that must be referred to this panel and will make disclosure by May 8th. Final written submissions will be sent to the panel no later than May 22nd and hearing dates are scheduled for May 29th and 30th, where there may be limited in-person testimony to support written submissions. The panel has until June 12th to render their decision, though they may request an extension if necessary.

Wage adjustments and retroactive payments for the agreed classifications will be paid on either June 26, 2025 (pay period 13) or July 10, 2025 (pay period 14). Any increases to classifications as determined by the arbitration panel are targeted for implementation in late August or early September.

If there are any questions regarding wage implementation for your specific classification, you must reach out to your respective employer contact as follows:

hresources@iwk.nshealth.ca

compensation@nshealth.ca

We appreciate your ongoing patience and support as we navigated this time-consuming, complex, and often frustrating process. We are hopeful that it will place our hard-working health care members back in their rightful place as leading in Atlantic Canada.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about this process, please reach out to your Area VP.