Greetings VSB Members!
We hope everyone had a wonderful summer break and we are pleased to welcome everyone back. We also want to say hello to new members who are joining us for the first time.
Just a reminder to everyone regarding vacation time, as this seems to pop up at the beginning of every school year, it is not mandatory for you to seek pre-approval from your Administrator. However, if you are booking your vacation, it is a courtesy to let them know that you will be away. Only in certain circumstances, and only on a case-by-case basis, some vacation may be subject to “operational requirements”; it must apply reasonably, and not be the default position of the Administrator. It is important to note that the absence of a substitute is not a reason to deny vacation time.
As your collective agreement is expiring on June 30, 2025, your elected bargaining committee, who has a very good representation of members within the VSB, is currently preparing for bargaining in 2025. They will be attending a training session in late September, and will then begin meeting to draft the member survey, which will go out to all CUPE members of the VSB in the upcoming months.
Please make a point of acquainting yourself with the following information regarding the Learning Improvement Fund (LIF) and Earned Time Off (ETO) documents that are linked here to our website as well as attached below, so that you are familiar with what your entitlements are under these two items.
We wish to remind everyone who may not have already taken advantage of the Wellness Funding, which is available to all full-time regular employees, to get your applications in quickly!
Additionally, the union and employer jointly applied for funds through the provincial Support Staff Education Committee to provide a training program called Self-Regulation for Education Assistants. It is a 3-month course, 100% online, and 2-3 hours of work a week. The first cohort starts on Thursday, September 12, 2024 with 20 spaces available and the deadline to register is Wednesday, September 11, 2024. If this is something that you would be interested in, please visit the VSB Pro-D website to register. Because of the short deadline, we have agreed that registration will be processed on a first come first served basis, but future cohorts will be determined by seniority. There will also be an overview of the program via Teams next week, which you can access on the Pro-D website.
Members are also reminded of your right to refuse Unsafe Work, and it is not up to your Administrator to determine what is safe or not. If you feel it is unsafe, then refuse the work. It is for your own safety and is recognized by WorkSafeBC. If you have any questions or need union support with this, please reach out to us at email@cupe.org.
This is our reminder, especially because 2025 will be a bargaining year, to always keep your mailing and email address up to date with the union office by emailing us at email@cupe15.org or calling us at 604-879-4671, as there will be an increase in information that is specific to our K-12 members coming to you.
Once again, we wish everyone a safe, happy, and exciting year ahead!
In solidarity,
Warren Williams
President