Bargaining
ICBC – Bargaining – Update #8
April 14, 2023
To: All MoveUP members at ICBC
After three more days at the bargaining table, we are continuing to make progress, although we understand members may be feeling a bit frustrated that our new collective agreement isn’t yet in place. Please know we are working hard to get to an agreement soon. We are scheduled to meet with ICBC again May 15-18.
Recently, we have been getting questions about how pay increases will work once this new agreement is ratified.
In this addition of our bargaining bulletin, we will answer some of the top questions we have received:
Q. How do you know what the wage increases will be?
A. At each round of collective bargaining, the Public Sector Employer’s Council (PSEC) sets a mandate for all public sector bargaining, which includes ICBC. For this round of bargaining, the general wage increases have now been set as well as the length of the contract. The following will make up the wage package for our new agreement, once it is ratified:
Year 1 (July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023) $0.25/hour + 3.24%
Year 2 (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024) 6.75%
Year 3 (July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025) A minimum of 2% and a maximum of 3%. The amount will be based on the annualized average of British Columbia’s consumer price index (CPI) over 12 months starting on March 1, 2023.
Q. How long will the next collective agreement be?
A. The term of the next collective agreement will be 3 years.
Q. Who is the PSEC and why do they determine our salaries?
A. The Public Sector Employers’ Council oversees the Province’s strategic coordination of labour relations, total compensation planning, and human resource management across the broader public sector. As a Crown corporation, ICBC falls under the mandate and control of the PSEC. Since many other public sector bargaining tables have already agreed to the wage increases listed above, and have ‘me too’ agreements in place, the general wage increase pattern is now set and ICBC will not be permitted by the PSEC to alter that pattern.
You can read more about the PSEC here.
Q. Is there any other money available for bargaining?
A. Yes. The PSEC has also decided that .25% of the total compensation for years 1 and 2 can be used toward mutually agreeable items that are unique to the specific employer, however it can not be used to increase the general wage increase. At ICBC, that amount is approximately $1M per year.
You can read more about the PSEC mandate for this round of bargaining here. The Mandate for this round of bargaining is referred to as the Shared Recovery Mandate.
Q. If our contract expired last June, will we get retroactive pay and when?
A. ICBC has indicated that they will pay retroactive general wage increases once the collective agreement is ratified.
Q. What does ‘ratified’ mean?
A. Once we have reached an agreement with ICBC, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that includes all of the agreed-to proposals signed by both ICBC and your bargaining committee will be distributed to all members, and you will have an opportunity to vote on accepting or rejecting the agreement. It will be considered ratified if a majority of the votes cast accept the new agreement.
Q. How will we get to vote?
A. Voting will take place through each person’s secure Member Portal through our website. If you have not set up your Member Portal, we encourage you to do so soon. Here is a link to some helpful tips on how to set up your Member Portal.
Q. Can we add more proposals now that bargaining has started?
A. No. Both parties (us and ICBC) have agreed that neither side can add more proposals. That is known as ‘piling on’ and it would only delay the process, resulting in even longer waits for wage increases.
Q. Is there somewhere that I can get information on public sector bargaining?
A. At MoveUP, we have created a page on our web site that gives more information on public sector bargaining.
In solidarity,
Brenda Chu, Executive Board Member
Bryan Finstad, Executive Board Member
Brian Martens, Executive Board Member
Dimitri Ossinsky, Executive Board Member
Jeff Bryant, Executive Board Member
Annette Toth, Vice-President
Trevor Hansen, Union Representative