The bargaining association representing roughly 35,000 of B.C.’s unionized social services workers has a tentative deal for a new collective agreement.
The deal between the Community Social Services Bargaining Association and the Community Social Services Employers’ Association will be backdated to March 31, 2025, when the previous agreement expired.
The B.C. government announced the tentative agreement in a Friday (April 24) news release, but did not share specific details, other than that the deal is based on the 2025 balanced measures mandate providing a three per cent per year wage increase for four years, plus additional low-wage redress.
Wage increases are based on the amount negotiated by the public service bargaining group after an eight-week strike last fall.
The Employers’ Association says it will send out communication providing more details of the agreement within the next week.
This deal covers workers at private, group and residential community living homes, supported employment programs, child development centres, adult day programs, mental-health centres, immigrant settlement programs, counselling for victims of sexual abuse, and crisis intervention programs.
This bargaining group includes 10 unions, with the majority of workers (about 13,000) belonging to the B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU). The Canadian Union of Public Employees has the second most.
This agreement took months longer than many other public sector deals. BCGEU President Paul Finch said he thinks that after all the hard work, the members will be happy with it.
“I think that they got a good deal here,” he said in a phone interview. “But I think it was very difficult going at the table.”
The tentative agreement will now be put to members for a ratification vote.
Several public sector unions are still in negotiations, including the one representing nurses, which recently declared an impasse and is now preparing for a strike vote.
The only deals left involving the BCGEU are for post-secondary instructors and support staff.