In response to changes made in provincial legislation (Bill 47), PHSA is bringing its current contracted Housekeeping and Food Services staff into PHSA. This change impacts some staff working at the BC Cancer Agency (Vancouver) and Research Centre, Brock Fahrni Pavilion, and Children’s and Women’s Hospital Campus (including the Slocan site, but excluding the Teck Centre at this time). As a result, affected Compass and SerVantage housekeeping and food service employees are being provided an opportunity to become PHSA employees. 

Bringing housekeeping and food services staff to PHSA will allow us to be in a position to better support the individuals who dedicate themselves to supporting our patients, clients and their families. Our goal is to ensure that all affected food services and housekeeping staff are aware of comparable employment opportunities at PHSA. We want to assure you that your continuity of employment is important to us.

No, you do not need to re-apply. Affected employees must submit their information to PHSA, and regular full-time and regular part-time employees will participate in the job fair for line selection. Affected casual employees will be placed on the PHSA casual employee list. The transfer to PHSA will take place on April 29, 2022. 

Affected Compass and SerVantage staff will officially become PHSA employees on April 29, 2022. 

The LATA is an agreement made between the union and the health authority in order to transfer eligible regular and casual housekeeping and food services staff to employment with PHSA. A copy of the LATA summary will be made available to you when the negotiations are complete. 

If you need language translation services at the job fair, please email askHR@phsa.ca with the subject “Bill 47” and your specific language needs and your worksite. 

Yes. PHSA will ensure that everyone gets the appropriate information and orientation that is required. More details will be shared with you in the near future.

If you have a valid criminal record check completed through the Ministry of Health for working with children and vulnerable adults, and it was completed within the last five years you are required to share a copy of your results with PHSA. If not, then you are required to complete a new criminal record check. PHSA can provide you with step by step instructions on how to share results, or complete a new criminal record check.

Yes. Our Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) provides short-term, confidential counseling and support is available to all PHSA employees and eligible dependents. This program is available to you if you accept an offer of employment with PHSA and can be accessed once you receive your employee number.

We understand that many people will have questions. Please know that there will be more information provided as we move forward with the transition. Please feel free to email askHR@phsa.ca with the subject line: Bill 47. 

We have established three sites for the transferred employees: C&W including the Slocan site; BC Cancer at the VCC and Research Centre sites and Brock Fahrni as it’s own site.

Regular employees will be enrolled in the dental and extended health plans of the Facilities (FBA) collective agreement effective May 1, 2022, as long as you were enrolled in benefits plan with your current contract employer (Compass or SerVantage). 

PHSA’s goal is to minimize any disruption for affected employees.

Regular employees who are not currently receiving benefits will be enrolled in the dental and extended health, group life, accidental death and dismemberment and long term disability plans of the Facilities (FBA) collective agreement effective the first of the month following three months of regular employment.

Yes, PHSA offers staff a pension plan under the Municipal Pension Plan. Regular full-time and part-time employees are automatically registered under this plan. 

Vacation entitlement information can be found in Article 28 (page 34) of the FBA Collective Agreement.

Article 31 (page 38) of the FBA Collective Agreement outlines your sick leave accrual. You earn 1.5 work days credit per month of paid sick leave to a maximum of 156 work days or 1170 hours.

It is possible that your unit assignments will change. We hope to limit the impacts on employees while ensuring patient and operational needs are met.

If you have already completed your probationary period while working with your current employer, you will not need to complete a new probationary period with PHSA. If you are currently part way through your probationary period, you will need to complete the remainder of this probation with PHSA.

Your seniority is protected and will transfer with you. Additionally, if you are currently working with PHSA or have previously worked with PHSA, your combined total of seniority will be transferred with you to a maximum of 1,950 seniority hours for any one year of service.

Seniority from other health authorities is not included. However, your previous seniority with PHSA and any seniority you have with your current employer will be transferred.

If there are vacancies in regular full-time and part-time positions after the job fair, we will post those positions on PHSA’s careers page http://www.phsa.ca/careers. Casual employees who have transferred to PHSA may apply as an internal candidate for those postings. 

No, at the job fair you will select your line within your employment status (full-time or part-time), at your primary worksite, within your job classification, and in order of seniority. 

Affected supervisors will be unionized when they start with PHSA and will be covered by the Facilities (FBA) collective agreement. We will provide additional information specific to supervisors at a later date. 

It is our intention to use the line selection (job fair) process for the Retail Food Service locations: C&W cafeteria, C&W Tim Horton’s and BC Cancer – Vancouver cafeteria. Current regular full-time and part-time Compass employees will be involved in those line selections. Any vacancies remaining after the line selection process will be posted on PHSA’s careers page.

At this time, we are reviewing where the BF Food Service staff do their work and will be discussing this with the Union. More information on this will follow.

It is possible that your unit assignments will change. We hope to limit the impacts on employees while ensuring patient and operational needs are met.

Yes, supervisors who are transitioning to PHSA will become supervisors under the Facilities Bargaining Association Collective Agreement. 

Yes, we will be hosting information sessions specifically for supervisors at a later date. We will send information about these sessions once we have finalized the details.

Your length of service with Compass will be converted to seniority to a maximum of 1,950 seniority hours for any one year of service.

It is our intention to use the line selection (job fair) process for the positions. Current regular employees will be involved in those line selections. Any remaining vacancies after line selection will be posted.

Any vacancies after the line selection will be posted on PHSA’s careers page. You will also be able to view these job postings after April 29 as a PHSA employee on our internal job board. 

Where uniforms are required, they will be provided in accordance with the Facilities Bargaining Association Collective Agreement, Article 7.05.01