HEAL TH SCIENCES ASSOCIATION OF SASKATCHEWAN NEWSLEI IER

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The Official Newsletter of the Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan

1231 - 8th Street East Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7H OS5 343-6611

October - 1989

Official Notice

WHO: All H.S.A.S. Members

UHAT: Annual General Meeting

UHERE: Kindersley Room, 3rd Floor, Holiday Inn Saskatoon (corner of 1st Avenue and 22nd Street

East)

UHEN: 1:00 p.m .. Saturday, October 21, 1989

UHY: The Annual General Meeting is the supreme decision making body of our Association. Its success depends upon your involvement. Please plan to attend.

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Annual General Meeting Agenda

1:00 - 1:20 - Registration 1:20 - 1:30 - Introduction and Uelcome by President Ekberg 1:30 - 3:00 - Guest Speaker - Maureen Whelan

3:00 -3:30 -5:30 -

Topic: Professionalism vs. Unionism (see page 3 for details)

3:30 - Coffee, tea, juice, water break 5:30 - Business Meeting (see Agenda below)

6:30 - Social with complementary wine/beer and hor d'oeuvres

7:30 - Annual President's Dinner for all incoming and outgoing Executive Council members, Hospital Representatives and Board of Governors.

Business Meeting Agenda

1. Adoption of Agenda 2. Adoption of the October 22, 1988 Annual General Meeting minutes 3. President ' s Annual Report 4. Financial Report 5. Auditor ' s Report (copies available from Executive Council Members, Hospital Representatives or the H.S.A . S. Office from October 16, 1989 onwards) 6. Executive Director's Annual Report 7. Committee Reports :

(a) Communication (b) Grievance (c) Education

8. Election of Executive Council members to represent the following groups; Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, *Social Uork and Speech Language Pathology. * Due to a resignation in midterm, the member elected to represent Social Work will serve for only one year.

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9 . Old Business : ( a) Amalgamation of Professional

Collective Agreements (b) Reduction of Initiation Fees (c) Establishment of an Emergency Fund

10 . New Business:

and Technical

(a) Discussion on feasibility of H.S . A. S. adopting a charity(s) on a year to year basis

(b) Proposal from Executive Council to provide a $10 per meeting honorarium for Executive Council members 11 . Proposed amendment to the H.S.A . S. Constitution and addition to the H.S.A.S . Bylaws (See page 5 for details) 12. Member's Resolutions 13. Adjournment

Attention H.S.A.S. Members - Regina and Prince Albert

The Association will provide transportation Annual General Meeting. If you are interest please contact one of the following people October 16, 1989.

to and from the in this offer,

on or before

Roberta Ekberg, Regina Bonnie Reed, Prince Albert

home 781-2367 home 784-1338

Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker at the A. G.M. will be Maureen Uhelan, Assistant Executive Director and one of the founding members of the Health Sciences Association of British Columbia. Although a Nutrionist by trade, over the past several years, Maureen has been working in several capacities for the Association. Her experience as a health care professional and as a union employee uniquely qualifies her as a speaker on the topic of Professionalism vs. Unionism.

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The topic, Professionalism vs . Unionism, would seem to suggest some conflict or at least dichotomy between the concepts. But is there really ? Surely a member of a professional association can be a loyal union member as well . Maureen will discuss what the appropriate role of each organization is in the working lives of professionals and what should be expected of them in fulfilling those roles. The fact is that membership in the larger group does not need to mean that the interests of the individual professions will be subsumed and ways in which these may be advanced with a union structure will be considered.

Maureen that you 1989.

encourages g10up discussion and to this end we ask give this topic some thought before October 21,

Official Notice of: 1) A Proposed Amendment To The H. S.A.S. Constitution and 2) A Proposed Addition To

The ~.S.A.S. 's By-Laws

Pursuant to Article III Section 3 of the H.S . A.S. By-Laws this is an official notice that the following amendment and addition have been approved by three-fourths of the Executive Council present at a meeting held on September 21, 1989.

It is now up to those H.S.A.S. members attending the Annual General Meeting to decide whether or not this amendment and/or addition will take effect.

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1) Proposed Amendment To The H.S.A . S . Constitution

Objects of the Association :

( &) To provide a high standard of pat i ent care such that no disciplinary proceedings would be taken against any member who r efused to take part in any concerted refusal to provide se r vice either by strike or honouring any picket line.

(g) To ensure patient safety 1participate in the creation of an essential services committee at each health care facility in the event of a

legal strike .

2) Proposed Addition To The H.S.A.S. By-Laws

Article VIII Disciplinary Powers Section I Every member of the Association is guilty of an offence against the Constitution and By-Laws who: (e) Work During A Legal Work Stoppage : Works during a legal work stoppage unless specifically authorized by decision of Executive Council.

Negotiations Update

Although the memorandum of agreement signed on April 3, 1989 between H. S.A.S. and the S.H.A . provided for retroactivity to January 15, 1989, your Negotiating Team was successful in p e rsuading the S.H.A . to back it up to January 1, 1989 .

All local negot i ations have been completed except for University Hospital . At this facility all wording has been agreed to and wear~ waiting for signatures.

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Collective Agreements

The new collective agreements h a ve arrived and are being distributed to currently employed H.S.A.S. members by Executive Council members and Hospital Representatives. Please contact either of th e m o r the H.S.A.S . Office for your copy .

Article 4.01 of our collective agreement requires the employer to provide futur e employees with an agreement at the beginning of their employment .

Ex ec u t ive Co un c il Highlights

September 21, 1989

- Executive Council received and accepted the resignations of Cindy Hayto, Saskatoon City Hospital Representative, and Doris Havard, Executive Council Member for Social Work. Both resignations are to take effect October 21, 1989.

A motion was passed that S . U.N. be informed of our approval in principle of their proposal (see below) and that Tim Slattery serve as H.S.A . S.'s representative on the joint council.

S.U.N. 's proposal - that a joint council of health care unions be forced to co-ordinate the investigation and identification of deficiencies in our current health and welfare plans.

- An amendment to the H.S . A.S. Constitution and an addition to the H.S.A.S . By-Laws was approved by three fourths of the Executive Council present

- Tim Slattery reported he met with Kay Willekes, Executive Director of Health Sciences Association of Alberta, on August 25, 1989 in Edmonton. He stated he took away several ideas that he hopes to apply to H. S . A.S.

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- Roberta Ekberg suggested that H.S.A.S. hold a 1 1/2 day retreat in the near future for all incoming and outgoing Executive Council members. The purpose of the retreat would be to provide a forum for the discussion of long range planning.

H.S.A.S. Grievances

Hospital Nature of Grievance Status

University -Saskatoon

Resolved at the Statutory holiday pay for part-timers Supervisor's

level

University -Saskatoon

Posting/Selection

level

Resolved at the Supervisor's

Labour Relations Board Matters

Saskatoon City Hospital has recently provided us with a list of positions currently excluded from the scope of the H.S.A.S. collective agreement . These positions are as follows:

Director of Therapies Manager of Physical Therapy Director of Material Management - Pharmacy Assistant Director of Pharmacy Manager of Pharmacy, Operations Manager of Pharmacy, Clinical

However, Relations positions:

the certification Board allows for

Physiotherapy supervisor Senior physiotherapist Chief pharmacist Assistant chief pharmacist

order the

issued by the Labour following out-of-scope

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The Hospital has been informed that neither the Labour Relations Board or H.S.A.S. has agreed to these additional exclusions and that the Hospital ha$ an obligation to negotiate changes to the certification order with H.S.A.S. To date this matter is still outstanding.

Situations like this may be prevented from oc~ring in ~ other Hospitals if members would please inform~ Executive Council member, Hospital Representative or Executive Director, of hospitals attempting to take additional positionA out-of-scope.

Labour 1'1yths

t! Myth #4 Unions are always making unreasonable wage demands

Uhat is a reasonable wage demand? One that meets the workers' needs? One based on the employers' ability to pay? One that is tied to productivity? The fact is that nobody has yet devised a workable formula for determining wage increases that would he considered reasonable by the workers, by their employer, by the public, the press and government .

Besides, most employers - except occasionally when in genuine financial stress - still refuse to open their books to union negotiators. Unions are thus denied access to the data on profits, productivity and labour costs that they must have in order to formulate reasonable demands. The only alternative unions have in our private enterprise society is to go for as much as they think their members are entitled to get.

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Brochure Committee

This committee is made up of Terry Akister, Deanna Harbidge and Tim Slattery .

Carol Cohen,

The Committee has decided two brochures a.re required, one for organizing new members and one for new employees beginning work at H.S.A.S. facilities. Draft copies of each brochure have been produced and Executive Council members have been asked for their comments.

It is hoped final drafts will be ready for the next Executive Council Meeting .

Office Automation Committee

The . Office Automation Committee made up of Terry Akister, Ron Currie and Tim Slattery have developed a database format. To ensure the Association has sufficient information on each member to input in to the database the Committee has redesigned the H.S.A.S. initiation form.

At their September 21, 1989 meeting Executive Council approved the redesigned initiation form and agreed with the Committee that the form be given to e~ch hospital for their comments prior to printing.

For Your Information

The Supreme Court of Canada recently decided that an employer's sickness and accident insurance plan which excluded pregnant employees from receiving benefits during the 10 weeks before the week of confinement and six weeks after the week of confinement was discriminatory.

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The Facts: Canada Safeway maintained a group insurance plan for lts employees which provided amongst other coverage, weekly benefits for loss of pay due to accidents or sickness. Under the pla11, pregnant employees were excluded from receiving benefits during the 17 week period commencing 10 weeks before the week of confinement and ending six weeks after,~xemption from coverage was absolute, regardless of the reason an employee was unable to report to work. During part of the period of ineligibility, some coverage was available under the Unemployment Insurance Act. However, the benefits uuder the Act wer · e 1 ess that those for employees eligible under Canada Safeway's plan. The complainant, an employee of Canada Safeway Ltd., filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission alleging the differential treatment of pregnancy in Safeway's plan constituted discrJmination of the basis of sex contrary to the Human Rights Act of Manitoba.

The Manitoba Rights Commission decided that although Safeway's plan discriminated on the basis of pregnancy, this was not discrimination on the basis of sex within the Act. The complaina11t 's app.;:al was dismisst!d as was her· appeal to the Court of Appeal.

However, at the Supreme Court of Canada she was successful.

The Decision: A summary of the S.C.C. 's decision is as follows:

A benefit plan under .which preanant employees receive less favourable treatment than other employees is discriminatory. Discrimination is a distinction, whether intentional or not, but based on grounds relating to p~rsonal characteristics of the individual or group, which has the effect of imposing burdens, obligations or disadvantages on such individuals or group, which are not imposed upon others, or which withholds or limits access to opportunities, benefits and advantages available to other members of society.

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By making pregnant women ineligible for compensation for a 17-week period, regardless of the reason they were unable to work, the respondent's plan singled out pregnancy for disadvantageous treatment and was therefore discriminatory.

The plan was not justifiable on the basis that pregnancy was neither an illness or an accident, nor was it justifiable on the basis pregnancy was voluntary. Although pregnancy is not a sickness or accident, in our society it is indisputable a valid health related reason for absence from the workplace and should not have been excluded from the plan. Moreover, one of the purposes of anti­discriminatlon legislation is the removal of unfair disadvantages which have been imposed upon individuals or groups. Failing to find the respondent's plan discriminatory would undermine this purpose of sanctioning the imposition of one of the major costs of procreation entirely upon pregnant women, which is one of the most significant ways in which women have been disadvantaged in society. The argument that pregnancy was a voluntary condition was not compelling; pregnant women were not excluded from compensation until ten weeks before the week of confinement. Nor was the plan justifiable on the basis that it was merely underinclusive of the risks it could insure. Discrimination does not depend on a finding of invidious intent, and the effects of underinclusion may simply be a backhanded way of permitting discrimination. Moreover, benefits available through employment must be disbursed in a non-discriminatory manner. Finally, although discrimination on the basis of sex might have been permissible in employee benefits had regulations been passed pursuant to S. 7(2) of the Act, no such regulations had been passed. The only conclusion to be drawn from this was that discrimination in ~mployee benefit packages was not permissible under the Act.

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Discriminati on on the basis of pregnancy is discrimination on the basis of sex . Pregnancy is a condition uniqu e to women, and discrimination on the basis o f pregnanc y i s a f o r m of sex discrimination because only women have the capacity of become pregnant. Accordingly, a distinction bas e d on pregnancy is not merely a discrimination between those who are pregnant and those who are not, but between the gender which has the capacity for pregnancy and the gender which does not . Earlier decisions which held otherwise are based on an approach to interpreting huruan rights inconsistent with the approach enunciated by the Supreme Court of Canada in more recent decisions . As well, a law will not be saved merely because it operates equally among those to whom it has application . Although not all women are pregnant at any one time,~ discrimination on the basis of pregnancy is still sexual discrimination, as it does not affect anyone who is not a woman . Final l y, the fact the some provincial legislatures have amended the definition of ttsexual discriminationtt so as to include pregnancy does not indicate the term ttsexual discriminationtt does not include pregnancy.

What Does This Decision Mean To H.S . A . S. Members?

Both the Saskatchewan Health Care and City of Regina Disability Income Plans exclude employees on a pregnancy leave of absence from receiving benefits.

In light of this S . C.C. decision, discriminatory? To date neither the Regina have answered this question .

is this pr~ctice S.H.A. or City of

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Sho~t Term Overseas Placements in Asia, Africa, The Caribbean, Central America,

South America or South East Asia

Canadian Crossroads International, a charitable organization promoting international development and education in Canada and overseas, is seeking 220 Canadian volunteers for placement lengths varying from four months to one year. You could b~ placed in one of thirty-six Third Uorld countries. Applicants require cultural sensitivity, adaptability and commitment to promoting international awareness. The minimum age is 19 years with no maximum age. Our oldest volunteer was 73. A specialized skill is not essential. You will receive extensive training. A living allowance, airfare and accommodation are provided . Each participant must raise part of the program costs . The deadline for applications is September 25, 1989.

"What we ti Ped i.s a uault for intelligent life or1 this planet."

The Western Regional Office #101, 10920 - 88 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T6G OZl (403) 433-8015

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Executlve Councll

The Executive Council ls the governing body that conducts the business of the Association between Annual General Meetings. The current Council members are:

Name

Roberta Ekberg Pasqua Hosp. Deanna Harbidge University Hosp. Ed Dewhurst University Hosp.

Michelle Ross University Hosp. Janice Peterson* University Hosp. Lesley Chlopan** University Hosp. Nahid Ahmad University Hosp. Doris Havard*** University Hosp. Jenny Okroj Regina Gen. Hosp.

Executive Position

President

Fir ·st Vice President

Vice President Sec./Treasurer

Council Member

Council Member·

Council l'Iember

Council Member

Council Member

Council Member

Group Represented

Pharmacists

Physical Therapists Radiology and Nuclear l'Iedicine Technologists Occupational Ther·aplst Lab.

Technologist Speech

Pathologists Psychologists

Social Workers

Dietitians

* Janice Peterson began serving as the tJ.H.M.I.S. Coordinator at University Hospital on a temporary basis effective March 1989. Until she returns to the Lab, her Executive Council duties have been assumed by Terry Akister.

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**Freda Toffolo-Frost was the elected Executive Council Member for Speech Pathologists; however, Freda resigned from Executive Council in January 1989. Her duties have been assumed by Lesley Chlopan.

*** Doris Havard has resigned as the Representative for Social Uorkers effective October 21, 1989.

Hospital Representatives

Uith Executive Council being composed of representatives f~om va~lou~ pro£eaalonal, occupatlonal or compoalte sroupa, there are altuatlon whlch arlae where a Hoapltal may not have an H.S. A.S . contact within the institution. To ensure ~n H.S . A.S. physical pr~sence in these hospitals, the Association provides for Hospital Representatives who serve ~~ ~ l~AjQn batwean H.S.A.S. membera and the Executive Council and Executive Director.

Name Bonnie Reed Ted l'lakeechak Cindy Hayto* Andrew Pedersen

Hospital Victoria Union Hosp. - P.A. St. Paul's Hosp. - Saskatoon Saskatoon City Hospital - Saskatoon Plains Health Centre - Regina

*Cindy has resigned effective October 21, 1989.

Board of Governors

The Board of Governors provide guidance and counsel to the Executive Council on all matters within the administration of the Association. Any member having served more than one full term of two years on the Executive Council, and having held either the office of President , First Vice President or Secretary/Treasurer for at least one full term of two years in such office elected by the Executive Council shall be eligible for election to the Board of Governors for a term of seven years.

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The current Gove r nor is: Ron Currie

H.S . A. S . Staff

Tim Slattery - Executive Di r ector

Committees

Finance Committee

Ed Dewhurst - Chairperson Ted Hakeechak Frank Bertoia Tim Slattery

Education Committee

Janice Peterson - Chairperson Michelle Ross

Ron Currie Tim Slattery

Communication Committee

Tim Slattery - Editor Terry Akister Cindy Hayto*

Emergency Fund Committee

Nahid Ahmad Cindy Hayto* Tim Slattery

* Cindy has resigned effective October 21, 1989

Certification Committee

Tim Slattery Terry Akister Ted Makeechak

Grievance Committee

Ted Makeechak Barbara Fergusson

Joanne Ualker Ed Dewhurst Roberta Ekberg Michelle Ross Terry Akister Tim Slattery

Brochure Committee

Terry Akister Carol Cohen

Deanna Hat'bidge Tim Slattery

Office Automation Committee

Terry Akister Ron Currie Tim Slattery

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HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR NAME, ADDRESS TELEPHONE NUMBER, PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT, OCCUPATION

OR STATUS (Full-tlroe, Part-time, LOA, etc)??

If you have, please let us know by clipping out the "Change of Information" form and forward it to the H.S.A.S. office. Ue are in the pro~ess of computerizing our membership files and it is important that we have up-to-date information on file.

'But on the brighter side, in the event of a ~e. you may all be fireproof.' ,

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CHANGE OF INFORMATION FORM

OLD INFO. NEtJ INFO .

NAME: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

ADDRESS: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHONE NUMBER: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OCCUPATION: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

STATUS:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

tJe would like to provide space in future editioris of Dispatches for members' comments. If you have something you would like to see printed, please write to:

Tim Slattery H.S.A . S

1231 - 8th Street East Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

S7H OSS