Grand Villa Collective Agreement Implementation

To: All BCGEU Members at Grand Villa ( Gateway Casinos)

Re: Collective Agreement Implementation

Since the Agreement was ratified in December, there have been a number of frustrations reported to your bargaining committee members and shop stewards. This bulletin is to assure you that those frustrations have been heard and are being addressed.

Most of the concerns raised by the membership are around the implementation of the Agreement. They involve the administration of the new wage structure; the deduction of Union dues starting February 1st; the schedule selection process; paid (statutory) holidays and vacations.

All of these items have been the subject of a number of meetings with your Employer. Those meetings will continue until these items have been fully implemented in the Agreement. That said, I can report on a number of them specifically:

New Wage Structure: It appears that this issue is working its way to a resolution and the concerns raised by the membership going back to the February 19th payday should be, for the most part, completed. If you believe that discrepancies still exist, please contact your shop steward or a bargaining committee member so that your concerns can be addressed at the worksite.

Union Dues: There were some members who had deductions made on vacation time earned in 2009. That has been corrected. Please make sure all of you have completed the necessary forms and have submitted them to the Employer.

Schedule Selection Process: This has been a frustrating process to go through, and here's why. The language that was negotiated identifies a need to know classification seniority dates. It turns out that a large number of those dates were never recorded by your Employer when any of you either entered into employment or moved from one classification to another. As a result, to delay the schedule selection until all of those dates have been identified would be harmful to many of you who have a chance to choose a schedule with more hours of work available than you presently have. It is for this reason; this process has taken way longer than we had hoped.

We are, however, working with the Employer to structure a solution to this problem with a process that we can implement for the time left on the Agreement. We are making some progress on this and hope to have this remedied soon. It is important to do this in a manner that is as fair as possible.

Paid (Stat) Holidays: Meetings continue with the Employer on the application of lieu days for paid holidays. As this is a new process, some confusion has shown itself at your worksite on how this is implemented. We want this issue resolved before Easter. We all saw that the payroll department was not quite ready for these changes after January 1st.

Vacations: Again, as this is a new process, it is important for employees to remember that vacation earned in 2010 will be applied to vacation time taken in 2011. In 2011 employees will be required to take the vacation they are entitled to. The vacation pay earned this year will be needed to cover the cost of the vacation time taken next year.

The important thing to remember always is that First Agreements take time to implement. That even though all things are not yet as they should be, the members rights are protected. You now have a dispute resolution process in your worksite called the Grievance Procedure, please review Article 8. You also have a Labour Management Committee, please review Article 7, that will be working closely with your Employer well into the future on issues as you raise them.

A number of your Shop Stewards have already gone through a 3 day Union course. Many of them will be in an Advanced Course next week. A new group of Stewards, over a dozen of them will be taking a 3 day training course at the end of this month.

The BC Labour Relations Board is doing a joint training course for both the Employer and Union representatives from your worksite that sit on the Labour Management Committee. This will assist both parties in developing the necessary skills to resolve matters in a respectful and efficient manner on your behalf at your worksite.

We are working diligently to get the Draft Agreement completed and signed. When that is done, copies will be sent to the membership.

Note: Please remember that the BCGEU represents employees at 6 different Gateway Casino locations. If members, when filling out their membership application cards, do not complete the card fully by indicating which location they work at, it is possible that you will receive information that is directed to members from a different worksite. For instance, if you simply say "Gateway Casinos" on the back of the card without indicating which casino it is, you may receive something directed to Starlight members or the other way around.

If you receive information that is meant to be delivered to members of a different worksite, please contact our Membership Records Department at (604) 291-9611 so that your Union can change your contact location.

As more information about the above issues presents itself, communication will be sent to you and the worksite.

In solidarity

Mike Orders
Staff Representative, Negotiations

cc: Grand Villa Bargaining Committee
Dave MacDonald, Chairperson, Component 17
Anthony Davies, Staff Representative, LMAO
Muriel Labine, Staff Representative, Organizing
Brandee Hannah, Staff representative, Organizing

Click here for pdf version: /files/FYI100317e.pdf