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What do Regional Councils do?
Regional Councils are mandated:
- To enhance the working relationships amongst members, other employees, and management toward a healthy workplace environment;
- To facilitate the education of members about their rights and responsibilities within the workplace; ;
- To monitor the application of the Collective Agreement and report discrepancies to the Labour Relations Officer; ;
- To monitor policies, directives and protocols that are issued by the employer that impact on members and report concerns to the Labour Relations Officer.
Regional Council Members are not:
- shop stewards
- experts on Labour Laws or the Collective Agreement
- required to solve union/management situations - that’s what the Labour Relations Officers get paid to do.
In other words, Regional Councils act as the eyes and ears of the union.
For instance:
- the qualifications or job duties on a posting appear to have been changed or downgraded
- months have gone by where a vacant position has not been filled causing stress to the workers in that department
- workers have been asked to work outside normal hours without compensation or are expected to perform duties outside of their job description.
A Regional Council member may notice or hear of situations like these and be able to inform the worker of her rights and/or encourage the worker to alert her Labour Relations Officer. As well, Regional Councils greatly improve communication among members in their region. This is especially important during times of bargaining when accurate information sharing is crucial.
Currently there are five active HSAS Regional Councils. The Chairpersons of each are as follows:
| Cypress |
|
Ralph Aman |
| Sunrise |
|
Tamara Dobmeier |
| Sun Country |
|
Mary Deren |
| Five Hills |
|
Sheila Bellrose |
| Prince Albert Parkland |
|
Nicole Rancourt |
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| Committee Chair - Dave Tillusz |
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