{"id":133170,"date":"2025-09-10T07:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T07:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/133170\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T07:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T07:04:12","slug":"bcgeu-workers-seeking-to-have-remote-work-added-to-contract-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/133170\/","title":{"rendered":"BCGEU workers seeking to have remote work added to contract language"},"content":{"rendered":"

As British Columbia\u2019s public sector strike stretches into its second week, one of the key sticking points in negotiations remains contract language around remote and hybrid work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Currently, about 4,000 of the B.C. General Employee Union\u2019s<\/a> members work from home either full or part-time, and members are pushing for new contract language to reflect the arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important for our membership,\u201d said Dean Purdy, BCGEU Component 1 vice president for corrections and sheriffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a number of bargaining proposals for the bargaining committee, for us to negotiate that language.\u201c<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:52
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOntario ends remote work for civil servants, orders full return to office in 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The remote provisions are important enough to the union that they\u2019ve built their strike strategy around it.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Members who live within 30 kilometres of a picket site are asked to come down in person, while those who live further away are permitted to do work for the union like making calls, or even gathering online.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

Amid wildfire-related air quality issues, the union even moved to fully virtual pickets in the Prince George and Williams Lake area on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, our member are coming together in kind of virtual online rooms to discuss with each other, talk with each other, that\u2019s what is happening,\u201d BCGEU president Paul Finch said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Politics
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

While some other provinces and federal agencies have ordered public sector employees back to the office, B.C. has embraced remote work.<\/p>\n

While the public service doesn\u2019t guarantee the option, the province says it is<\/a> \u201cis committed to making available flexible workplace arrangements suitable\u201d for remote and in-office work \u201cwhere the arrangement is beneficial to both the employee and their work unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a change Victoria\u2019s business community is unhappy about.<\/p>\n

John Wilson, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, said the city\u2019s downtown core is \u201cin crisis\u201d as it grapples with crime, social disorder, labour shortages and rising costs.<\/p>\n

Wilson believes that crisis is exacerbated by the flight of civil servants from the area, where the provincial legislature also happens to be.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public sector workforce in the downtown core is instrumental in supporting some of these small and mid-sized businesses. Some of them were put in place to support that workforce, whether it be coffee shops, lunch shops, things like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tPolice share 1st photos of NZ fugitive father\u2019s campsite, where he hid with kids\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tAlberta twins share 10-year breast cancer battle: \u2018She gets it\u2019\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe downtown core needs these workers back in the office space, the private industry, the economy and the vibrancy of downtown Victoria is being greatly affected \u2014 I think it has a trickle-down effect on the safety and disorder in the downtown core, too, with the lack of busyness down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:03
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tReturn-to-office rules for public servants set to kick in. What to know\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Wilson said Victoria\u2019s downtown has already seen a number of businesses close in recent months, and the community is at risk of hollowing out if civil servants don\u2019t return to their workplaces.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the BCGEU\u2019s strike shows no signs of winding down, with some 4,000 members now on the picket lines, and the union vowing to escalate if the province doesn\u2019t meet its wage demands.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

The province has offered a a 4.5 per cent compensation boost over two years, including cost-of-living allowances.<\/p>\n

The ministry of finance said the union is seeking 15.75 per cent, but Finch called that \u201ccreative math\u201d because it includes an entire \u201cmenu\u201d of cost of living allowances that are options.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With a file from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As British Columbia\u2019s public sector strike stretches into its second week, one of the key sticking points in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72479,60630,43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-133170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-b-c-general-employee-union","9":"tag-bcgeu-strike","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}