Local 5621 Update, June 29, 2021 - Health Professionals & Allied Employees

Local 5621 Update, June 29, 2021

We hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable summer that includes rest and relaxation. Some updates and reminders for staff:

  1. Everyone should have received a 2.25% across the board raise. This was bargained for us in our last contract negotiations. The next wage increase will be in December when all full-time and part-time nurses will move one step on the salary step scale. You can reference article 53 of our contract to see where you are currently and what you will make on the next step.
  2. Clinical ladder applications are due on July 15th. This program is open to all full-time, part-time and per diem staff that work at least 1,000 hours a year. We encourage everyone not participating in the clinical ladder program to look into applying. You may be doing the requirements of the program without even realizing it.
  3. We have been hearing from many nurses that there seems to be an increase in workplace violence and harassment from patients. The hospital has a form on their intranet called an RL6 form for reporting these types of incidents. We urge everyone to report these events immediately. Hospital leadership needs to know about these situations so that we can have safeguards in place to prevent them from happening again.
  4. There has been a wave of agency nursing staff hired to help staff the units appropriately. Please remember that agency staff are the first to get cancelled and the first to be reassigned.

The order of cancellation is as follows (Article 71):

  1. Agency nurses
  2. Employees (FT, PT, PD) working overtime
  3. Employees (FT, PT, PD) working an extra shift that will result in overtime later in that week
  4. Employees (FT, PT, PD) who volunteer to be cancelled
  5. Employees (FT, PT) working extra shifts that will not result in overtime later in that week
  6. Per diem
  7. FT and PT employees

The order of reassignment is as follows (Article 27):

  1. Qualified agency nurses
  2. Qualified per diem
  3. Qualified FT and PT

In solidarity,

Local 5621 Executive Board