Please be advised that I have had to change the December meeting date – rather than having it later in December which is such a busy time – we will have it on Tuesday, November 27, 2018 @ 7pm in the Tolmie Boardroom. We will be handing out our 3 bursaries that night which is always a great gift from our membership.
We had another successful, busy station at the last Pro-D – I wasn’t able to make it but I understand it was well attended. Thank you for stopping by with your comments and queries – I thought I would address a few of them in this email.
CELL PHONES – If you are being told that using your cell phone is a requirement for your job please let me know – it is not appropriate for management to ask this of our staff with no compensation for it.
WHMIS Training – The majority of our members have received an email that it is time to update their WHMIS. This is to be done on employer time -if you have received other instructions please reach out to us.
VIOLENCE IN THE WORK PLACE – We have seen an increase of violence – mostly towards our EAs but certainly not limited to – we are here to support you through this – the link below takes you to the Violence Prevention Protocol – you will be most interested in Pages 3-6.
https://www.sd61.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2018/01/Violence-Prevention-Protocol-reviewed-Jan.-2018.pdf
Violence is NOT part of your job description – that includes biting, spitting, kicking, threatening, etc. Please report – and again, if you need our assistance contact us.
SUPERVISION – We are encountering situations where our EAs are being paid at the supervision rate while looking after our designated students – aka “eyes on”. We currently have a couple of open grievances around this issue. If you are in this situation please let us know – you all work hard for paycheck and we want to ensure that you are compensated accurately.
EAG VS EAP – We receive a lot of questions that start with “I have to toilet my student shouldn’t this be paid as an EAP”. Toileting is in the EAG job description so you may be asked to do this. It jumps to the EAP rate when you are working with student’s with health plans (not all) and you are administering insulin and doing daily checks to ensure the levels of these students are good. If you are working with students (typically but not always in wheelchairs) and you are required to do the lifting and supporting of these students during various activities.
TIMESHEETS – Please ensure you do your timesheets weekly to ensure there is no disruption to your pay. We all recognize that may be extenuating circumstances and Payroll will do their best to get you paid as quickly as possible. When they do need to issue a cheque on a day other than regular pay day they actually have to shut the whole system down (which potentially impacts other employee groups) and start up a new payroll for this. It isn’t just as easy as issuing a new cheque – it involves lots of steps. Thank you for your understanding.
I think that is enough information for one day – I hope you all have a good day as we know that October 31st brings way too much sugar and excitement for many of our students. I hope that the rain stays away for those of you out with your families tonight. Again, please contact us anytime and if we do not reply in a timely manner please resend your email – we are so busy and occasionally one gets missed.
Thank you,
Jane Massy
CUPE 947
President
