SAHO, CUPE, SGEU & SEIU-West Common Table Bargaining Update

April 20, 2026

SAHO met with the Health Provider Unions (HPUs) (HPUs - CUPE, SEIU-West and SGEU) for a total of 21 days over four sessions from February to the beginning of April. The parties did discuss some individual issues, but the focus was primarily on common table proposals.

On the afternoon of April 9, SAHO tabled an economic increase proposal which included a five-year term as follows:

April 1, 2023 – 3%                                                    April 1, 2026 – 2%

April 1, 2024 – 3%                                                    April 1, 2027 – 2%

April 1, 2025 – 2%

As of March 31, 2026, retroactive payments for Full-Time employees would be approximately: 

Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN):              $13,056.00

Continuing Care Assistant (CCA):            $ 8,375.00

Food Service Worker (FSW):                     $ 7,040.00

Environmental Services Work (ESW):      $ 6,824.00

SAHO indicated that until the HPUs purposefully engage in negotiating the employers’ priorities this is what they are tabling at this time.

SAHO remains disappointed as the negotiations continue to be slowed by several challenges. Most concerningly, the unions misunderstanding or mischaracterization of SAHO’s proposals related to:

(a) Movement of work and/or employees - Providing opportunities for employees to work across union territories

Despite the unions’ portrayals and as communicated to the unions on multiple occasions, SAHO’s proposals do not provide the ability for the employer to involuntarily move any employee at-will to anywhere in the province. This is an incorrect and misleading representation of SAHO’s proposals. SAHO’s proposals on these issues seek to reduce unnecessary barriers to delivering effective patient care and in many instances will maintain or reduce the current distances required for travel while ensuring fair and equal treatment of healthcare employees across their respective unions and the province as a whole. 

Consider the following map, which highlights the current barriers faced by employees seeking work opportunities in another union’s territory:

SEIU-West jurisdiction in yellow and CUPE jurisdiction in blue

The HPUs continue to maintain that their respective members, all of whom are SHA or Affiliate employees, cannot complete any work within the territory of another union. This restricts union members, all of whom are SHA or Affiliate employees, from crossing the boundaries of former geographic health regions. 

As a result, employees who wish to pick up hours in neighbouring communities are unable to do so if those communities are in different union territories. Furthermore, it creates a critical obstacle to finding solutions for temporary or emergent workload issues in situations where SHA employees may have capacity to pick up additional hours but cannot do so because the situation is occurring in a different union’s territory.

For example, in the map above, if the Grasslands Health Centre in Rockglen is short-staffed an LPN due to illness, they cannot offer shifts to LPNs from Coronach, who may have availability and want additional hours, because each location is in a different union territory. Instead, the facility is forced to work short-staffed, and patient care suffers.

The overarching purpose of SAHO’s proposals is to ensure fairness and equality for employees across the province by removing barriers that unnecessarily hinder both employees and the employers from delivering effective, efficient, and responsive patient care.

To this end, the flexibility built into SAHO’s proposals benefits both the employers and the employees by:  

• Providing more opportunities to work closer to their home community, which will help to address short-staffing or other emergent situations.
• Ensuring that employees can pursue a position anywhere in the province without sacrificing the benefits and recognition earned through their prior years of service. 
• Providing more opportunities for career growth and helping to address some issues with recruitment and retention. 
• Reducing the need for third party contractors.

SAHO’s proposals do not interfere with the jurisdictions of the unions. Rather, they enhance the rights and opportunities of their members while also providing the employer with greater agility to meet organizational needs and deliver safe, timely patient care, which is ultimately the goal of the provincial healthcare system.

 CUPE jurisdiction is in Blue, SEIU-West jurisdictions are in light Pink and light Orange 

In this example, a patient who lives in Imperial required wound care. Imperial is in the boundary of the former Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (CUPE union territory). Imperial receives service from Regina (which is 140 kms away). There were no employees available to deploy from Regina. The patient could not receive services from Watrous (39 kms away) as Watrous is in the former Saskatoon Health Region (SEIU-West territory). As a result, the patient had to drive to Regina to receive service rather than have their needs addressed in their home. 

(b) Portability of seniority

The HPUs have failed to collectively support the concept of portability of seniority for employees seeking opportunities outside of their own union’s territory. Portability of benefits and accruals without the inclusion of portability of seniority maintains barriers to voluntary movement for employees seeking positions outside of their own union’s territory and hinders recruitment, retention and relocation opportunities for employees. 

For example, the current seniority language of each union’s collective agreement provides that if an LPN working in SEIU-West’s territory (e.g. former Five Hills) wishes to move to take a position in CUPE’s territory (e.g. former Sun Country) or SGEU’s territory (or vice versa), whether for personal or professional reasons, they would lose all the seniority they had accrued.

SAHO believes that the ability for employees to voluntarily move across union territories is an issue of fairness for employees. It is about ensuring the membership of all the unions have the right to choose to live and work freely throughout the province without sacrificing any of the benefits and recognition earned through their prior years of service.

The HPUs have failed to meaningfully engage in conversations and respond to proposals involving movement of employees. On March 30th the SAHO bargaining committee provided another presentation on Health Networks and movement of employees to further assist in their understanding of SAHO’s proposals related to these issues. SAHO was hopeful that the HPUs would recognize the benefits increased movement offers to their members, the employers, and, most importantly, the clients/patients we serve. 

(c) Contracting In 

SAHO has proposals which would simplify contracting in limited to instances where the employer is actively recruiting to a vacant position and has been unable to do so. This would ensure continuity of care and consistent staffing levels in the provision of care to patients and residents and would be a temporary measure only where there are ongoing recruitment efforts by the employer. 

These proposals would not result in the loss of jobs to any employees or require employees to train contractors to take their jobs. It would apply only in cases where the employers are actively recruiting and need to temporarily contract to ensure patient needs are met until employees can be recruited.

The next bargaining session is scheduled for April 20 – April 24, 2026, in Regina. SAHO is committed to solution-based, productive discussions to draw these negotiations to a conclusion.   

Union/CUPE,Union/SEIU-West,Union/SGEU April 20, 2026