Greetings K-12 Members:
We wish to advise members that today, March 24, 2022, the union filed a policy grievance against the employer regarding the payment of wages when a member must enter into compulsory quarantine.
The current collective agreement states the following:
“Salary for time lost due to compulsory quarantine shall be paid to permanent employees when certified by the Medical Health Officer and is not chargeable against sick leave.”
The grievance arises as a result of the employer’s arbitrary decision to no longer compensate CUPE Local 15 members when they have to quarantine due to exposure to or contracting COVID-19.
The employer has instructed employees who have to quarantine due to COVID-19, and required by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), to take that time from their sick banks.
That is not correct!
Any mandatory quarantine as laid out by the BCCDC should be covered under the Compulsory Quarantine language of the collective agreement, not an employee’s sick bank!
If you are a permanent employee and have been instructed to draw down from your sick bank due to COVID-19 quarantine, we need you to contact the union office as soon as possible as the grievance filed is seeking to have the employer’s decision reversed, and your sick banks to be replenished.
Should you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the union office anytime.
In solidarity,
Warren Williams
President