Association for Allied Health Professionals Looking Ahead to Collective Bargaining After Declining Government’s Contract Extension Offer
St. John’s, NL – The Association of Allied Health Professionals (AAHP) has declined Government’s offer to extend its collective agreement for the next two years and will be initiating the bargaining process for its next contract as early as April 2020.
Government approached the Association in late December with an offer to extend its collective agreement and other proposals similar to those put forward to other public sector unions in recent months. Although AAHP’s current contract does not expire until June 30, 2020, according to President Virginia Whitten “The Association’s Board of Directors gave significant consideration to the proposals. We had a number of concerns we were unable to resolve in our discussions with Government and decided our Members’ interests would be best served through the formal bargaining process.”
Ms. Whitten further noted that “A proposal related to potential changes to contributions and benefits of the Provincial Public Sector Pension Plan (PPSP) in response to changes to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) was particularly concerning to us. Without the assurances we were seeking from Government, the AAHP was not prepared to make this significant upfront commitment without the critical information and analysis we felt necessary to assess potential longer-term impacts for our Members, future pensioners and PPSP pension fund.”
“Concerns from our Members about unmanageable and escalating work demands, a lack of resources, and continuous service delivery changes have been consistently growing and this also played a major role in AAHP’s decision.” said Pamela Toope, AAHP’s Executive Director. “Going back to the bargaining table gives us the opportunity to begin negotiating contract terms and conditions much sooner to help address the negative impacts for our Members and improve their working conditions.”
For More Information Please Contact the AAHP at:
info@aahp.wpengine.com
709.722.3353