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2024 Compensation and Employee Turnover Report Form Now Available.
For a copy of the Report form, user guide, other information or to register for a session Click Here

Under Two Weeks Remaining to Submit to Awards of Excellence Nominations

Members and Associates are reminded that Community Social Services Awards of Excellence nominations are due by 5pm on May 12. If you are looking to nominate a deserving individual or have started to draft a nomination, now is the time to complete your submissions. The awards, sponsored by TELUS, are a wonderful way to acknowledge the exceptional individuals working in community social services. This year’s winners will be celebrated at a special luncheon on October 26 in Kelowna as part of CSSEA’s 2023 AGM and Conference.

To learn more about the submission process, please refer to this CSSEA Info. The online nomination form can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact Doris Sun at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .…

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Flow of Government Funding for Management and Excluded Wages and Other Increases

Following the conclusion of 2022 collective bargaining, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction issued a letter to CSSEA employers dated February 6th that committed to providing the same funding increases for management compensation as union and non-union employees. Government has indicated that this will be implemented as a base 17.04% funding lift for compensation over the three-year mandate. In addition, government will make available up to $35.77 million in targeted funding for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, increased vehicle mileage reimbursement rates, and wage comparability adjustments for paraprofessionals in the Social Services Sector.

Government’s funding commitment is based on total compensation for provincially funded services, as reported by members through CSSEA’s 2022 Compensation and Employee Turnover Report. To ensure each agency receives appropriate funding increases across different provincial funding programs and sources, the funders have requested access to agency-level reported compensation data, something CSSEA has not provided in the past. Government has indicated that access to agency-level data is necessary for funders to provide funding for paraprofessional wage comparability and management increases.

To assist government in providing accurate and timely funding and to simplify the reporting, CSSEA is providing the option for agencies to voluntarily provide a written authorization (similar to what agencies that receive funding from the Ministry of Health already do) for CSSEA to share their agency-level data with their provincial funders. To do this, members are asked to fill out this Authorization Form, which will provide us with the necessary permission to release your agency’s total compensation cost, FTE and employee count by classification, reported funding, and costing for funding increases for each of your respective provincial government funders.…

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Nominations for 2023 Community Social Services Awards of Excellence Now Open

CSSEA is welcoming nominations for our Community Social Services Awards of Excellence, sponsored by TELUS. Now in their eighth year, the awards honour four exceptional individuals working in community social services who excel in their roles at delivering vital services to vulnerable individuals in BC. Anyone can submit a nomination and both CSSEA Members and Associates are eligible to be nominated.

Four Award Categories

There are four awards categories that honour individuals working at different stages of their careers:

  • Rising Star: An individual with less than five years of experience who demonstrates early success.
  • Leader: An individual with more than five years of formal leadership experience who leads and mentors a team to achieve a common goal.
  • Hero: Someone who goes the extra mile to make a difference, not necessarily in a formal leadership role.
  • Legend: An ED or CEO with at least 15 years of experience who has made extraordinary contributions to the community and the sector.…

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New Wage Grids Now Available

April 1, 2022 General Wage Increase (GWI) and Low Wage Redress (LWR) and April 1, 2023 General Wage Increase (GWI) and Cost-of Living Adjustment (COLA)

Since announcing on March 29 that Employers of the community social services sector have ratified each of the sector’s three collective agreements, CSSEA and the Community Social Services Bargaining Association (CSSBA) have agreed on the distribution of Low Wage Redress (LWR) and finalized the April 1, 2023 preliminary wage grids, which are effective the first full pay period following April 1.

Employers are asked to refer to this joint bulletin to obtain details on the wage increases, including April 1, 2022 wage grids that should be paid retroactively as soon as members are able or receive the necessary funding. The bulletin also includes April 1, 2023 preliminary wage grids, which are subject to further adjustments and may include retroactive increases once the Health Sector Wage Comparability increases are finalized. The parties have also signed a Memorandum of Agreement regarding distribution of LWR and the April 1, 2023 preliminary wage grids. The Indigenous Services Delegated Services wage grids can be found here.

If you have any questions, please contact your HRLR Consultant or Advocate.

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Parties Vote Overwhelmingly to Ratify 2022-2025 Collective Agreements: Key Dates to Note

CSSEA is pleased to announce that Employers have voted to ratify each of the three Collective Agreements by a convincing majority. Specifically, Employers in the Community Living Services division have voted 98.6% in favour of the new agreements; General Services voted 97.2% in favour; and Indigenous Services voted 100% in favour of the 2022-2025 Collective Agreements. The unions of the CSSBA have also ratified the Collective Agreements as of March 28, 2023; as a result, the tentative agreements reached on February 3, 2023 are now binding on all parties.

The new wage grids are currently being finalized with the unions and will be sent to Employers as soon they are available. In the meantime, the following schedule outlines key effective dates of implementation for Employers to note:

March 28, 2023

All of the changes are effective the date of Union ratification, as per article 32.5, except as set out below. This applies to all of the language or operational changes that do not involve an increase in your costs.

The monetary changes have effective dates as follows:

Beginning of First Full Pay Period on or after April 1, 2022
Wage rates:…

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Employer Bargaining Committee Meets with PSEC Secretariat and Funders

Following a one-week postponement in the scheduled ratification vote for the 2022-25 tentative collective agreements to enable the bargaining committee to meet with PSEC Secretariat and the funders, CSSEA’s Employer Bargaining Committee reaffirms its support for the tentative agreements and recommends members vote to ratify. The meeting between the Employer Bargaining Committee, CSSEA’s Board Chair, Vice-Chair and provincial funders took place on March 16 and was an opportunity to clarify the intent of the government funding letter, specifically its application to the non-union and excluded management compensation increases, which is outside CSSEA’s mandate. The meeting allowed the parties to achieve a better understanding of the funding methodology and mechanisms of the sector’s funders.

The ratification vote for Community Living Services, General Services and Indigenous Services will be open from 7:00am Tuesday, March 21 to 5:00pm Monday, March 27. As the primary bargaining contact on record at CSSEA, you will receive an e-mail on March 21 with a unique and confidential link to a webpage where your vote is to be cast. Your vote will automatically be tallied based on your agency’s weighted allotment of votes and you will receive an e-mail confirming receipt once your vote has been cast. If you have any questions, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .…

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Delay in Ratification Vote

CSSEA is delaying the opening of the scheduled ratification vote by one week in order to allow the Employer Bargaining Committee to obtain confirmation of the funding methodology and mechanism of the various funders. The vote will now take place from 7:00am Tuesday, March 21 to 5:00pm Monday, March 27.

If you have any questions, please contact Gentil Mateus, CEO, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .…

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Upcoming Ratification Vote

Please be reminded that the ratification vote for all three CSSEA tentative collective agreements will begin next week, from 7:00 am Tuesday, March 14 to 5:00 pm Monday, March 20. As the primary bargaining contact on file, you will be receiving the voting e-mail with a unique and confidential link to a webpage where the vote is to be cast.

The voting will be conducted in accordance with Article 13.05 of CSSEA’s Constitution and Bylaws, which stipulates that each agency’s vote is weighted based on its total number of bargaining unit FTEs. Each tentative agreement will be ratified if more than 50 per cent of the votes cast in each division are in favour.

If you have not yet reviewed the proposed amendments to the three collective agreements, we strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with them through this Summary of Changes document. CSSEA will also be holding its final ratification information meeting virtually on Monday, March 13 and encourage any Executive Directors and management/excluded staff still wishing to attend to register before 1pm tomorrow, Friday, March 10.…

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Ratification Information Meetings and Voting Procedure

 

As you are aware, CSSEA reached tentative collective agreements with the Community Social Services Bargaining Association for all three membership divisions on February 3, 2023. Members must still ratify the tentative agreements. In preparation for a ratification vote, CSSEA has prepared a detailed report of the proposed amendments to the three collective agreements, the Summary of Changes, as well as holding a number of in-person meetings and one virtual meeting, in order to outline the proposed changes. 

The ratification meetings are intended for Executive Directors and management/excluded staff only. We ask that you register for one or more of the following meetings at this link. Please bring with you the Summary of Changes for reference.

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Tentative Agreements Reached in Community Social Services Sector

CSSEA is pleased to announce that our Employer Bargaining Committee and the Community Social Services Bargaining Association (CSSBA) have reached tentative agreements for all three of its membership divisions, the culmination of one year of dedicated negotiations and an intensive series of meetings over the past two weeks.

The tentative agreements were made under the Shared Recovery Mandate, which advances government’s key priorities to improve public services and the health-care system, while supporting the province’s continued economic recovery for all.  The tentative agreements also support Employers’ and Unions’ shared key priorities to improve upon recruitment and retention, enhance mental health benefits, and advance Reconciliation with our Indigenous employees and peoples.

The tentative agreements are effective from April 2022 to March 2025 and include the following highlights:…

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Collective Bargaining Update

CSSEA and the Unions of the Bargaining Association (CSSBA) continued collective bargaining under the Province's Shared Recovery Mandate last week and on Monday of this week in an effort to reach a fair agreement that addresses many of the sector's challenges.

While progress continued to be made between the parties on a number of proposals and outstanding issues are being narrowed, there remain some sticking points — most notably in relation to wages and paid leave provisions. The Unions continue to seek significant improvements to paid leaves, including sick leave, in all of the CSSEA Collective Agreements, as well as for additional paid special leave under the Indigenous Services Collective Agreement.

CSSEA has tabled a number of comprehensive settlement proposals in response, but the parties remain apart on a number of issues. Over the last three rounds of negotiations, CSSEA’s Bargaining Committees have been primarily  focused  on improving the ability to continue to deliver services to clients and as such, views comparability in wages with the health sector — particularly at this time of rising inflation —as this sector’s highest recruitment and retention priority. To date, our proposals have prioritized allocating as much available funding toward achieving that goal and reducing agencies’ exposure to possibly not fully-funded leave provisions and other higher benefit costs.…

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Communications Contact

Doris Sun
Director of Communications
604.601.3110
604.319.5010
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.