Managing Auxiliary Employees

Auxiliary appointments are a form of temporary work assignment for non-regular status employees. Examples include seasonal workers like park rangers or aquatic biologists, or a project manager hired for the duration of a specific project. Auxiliary appointments can be to either union (included) or non-union (excluded) positions.

You might hear the terms “included”, “bargaining unit” or “union” employees. These terms all refer to the same thing: employees whose positions belong to one of the 3 main unions in the BC Public Service (BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), the BC Nurses’ Union (BCNU), and the Professional Employees Association (PEA)).

Similarly, you might hear both “excluded” and “non-union” in reference to positions in the BC Public Service which don’t belong to a union.

An auxiliary employee achieves in-service status after working at least 30 days (210 hours) after which they can apply to internal/in-service competitions. Out of service employees cannot apply to internal/in-service postings.

Auxiliary employees are subject to probation in the same way as regular employees are. Read more about the probationary period.

Auxiliary employees participate in performance reviews in the same way as regular employees.

If you are an auxiliary employee, you receive vacation pay (6% of regular earnings) on top of your hourly pay in lieu of paid time off. You can choose to take up to 15 days off without pay after you’ve worked a period of 6 months. Once you’ve worked 1827 hours in 33 pay periods, you will still be an auxiliary employee, and you will be eligible for paid vacation time.

All auxiliary employees are eligible for paid sick leave after accumulating 400 auxiliary hours. Sick leave is paid at 60% of normal average straight-time earnings for each period of illness up to a maximum of 15 weeks. This benefit has a waiting period of seven calendar days for each occasion of illness which means that benefits are paid starting on day 8. For complete details, refer to article 31.8 (Weekly Indemnity) of the BCGEU Main Agreement.

All employees, including auxiliary, who have been employed for at least 90 days are entitled to up to five instances of Employment Standards Act Paid Illness and Injury leave (ESAPII) in each calendar year. Employees must request ESAPII leave when on an absence due to illness or injury – it doesn’t happen automatically.

All auxiliary employees receive an allowance in lieu of health and welfare benefits until they have completed 1827 hours worked in 33 pay periods, with the same ministry. Once this requirement is met, they may enroll in the health benefit plans. Specific details can be found on the following pages Benefits for Bargaining Unit Employees and Benefits for Excluded Employees on Careers & MyHR.

Auxiliary employees in the BCGEU are also eligible for health benefits once they have worked three consecutive years with the same ministry without a loss of seniority and maintaining 1200 hours at the straight-time rate in the past 26 pay periods. These employees are eligible for extended health, dental and life insurance plans.

Auxiliary employees without benefits are not eligible to receive maternity/parental leave top up payments offered as a benefit to regular employees. Your leave is per the BC Employment Standards Act. However, once an auxiliary employee becomes eligible for benefits, they will also become eligible for contractual leaves and benefits, including maternity and parental leaves.

Auxiliary employees begin making contributions to the Public Service Pension Plan when they earn a salary that is higher than 50% of the maximum amount of earnings on which pension contributions are calculated in a calendar year. The year’s maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE) is set by the Government of Canada. For example, the maximum pensionable earnings amount for 2023 is $66,600. Once an auxiliary earns over $33,300 in 2023, they would start contributing to the Public Service Pension Plan and would see “Superannuation Plan” deductions start to come off their paycheque.

Note: Employees who are currently members of the Public Service Pension Plan and meet certain requirements have the option to buy service for periods when they were not making pension contributions. This allows them to increase their pension. This also applies to the time when auxiliary employees were working before they reached the 50% earnings threshold mentioned above. Deadlines and conditions apply. To learn more about your pension, visit MyHR.

No, hours towards eligibility for benefits must be earned from the same ministry. Hours cannot be carried with you to another ministry.

Auxiliary employees who have worked in excess of 30 days (210 hours) will be recognized as in-service applicants when applying for regular positions.

Provided there has not been a severance of the employment relationship, yes, for hiring purposes, time working in an auxiliary position does count toward years of continuing service.

Auxiliary employees are eligible for consideration for conversion to regular status the month after they have worked 1827 hours in 33 pay periods in a continuous full-time or continuous part-time nature. Conversion to regular status is the exception rather than the norm. In most cases, auxiliary appointments are terminated before reaching 1827 hours, or after reaching 1827 hours but are nevertheless deemed to still be temporary in nature.

For example, if an auxiliary employee is hired to cover a 52-week maternity/parental leave but the person on leave decides they want to take additional time off, the auxiliary employee would not qualify for conversion to regular status as their term would end once the employee returns from their leave.

The decision to convert an auxiliary appointment to permanent status rests with the Employer.

Included auxiliary employees who belong to the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) can find more detailed information on seniority, layoff and recall related to being an auxiliary in the BCGEU Main Agreement under articles 31.3 (Seniority), 31.4 (Loss of Seniority) and article 31.5 (Layoff and Recall).

Bargaining unit auxiliary employees who are on layoff status have 9 months in which the ministry can recall them if work is available, and they qualify to carry out the work. If an employee is not recalled within 9 months, they are terminated as that is the end of the recall period.

Excluded auxiliary employees don’t have recall rights once their position ends; they are considered terminated, at which point access to the Recruitment Management System (RMS) and internal job postings also ends.

Recall status applies to bargaining unit auxiliary employees. Once their term ends or lay off occurs, they have recall rights to the same work for up to 9 months from the date of layoff. No action is required to activate their recall rights, it is automatically generated by the end of term date for the appointment in the PeopleSoft system. Managers can send them a layoff letter, but that is not needed to trigger recall rights.

Benefits will continue to the last day of the month of layoff.

You can continue your benefits while on layoff by paying the premiums for up to 6 months. You must complete an Option to Continue Employee Benefits While on Leave of Absence Without Pay or Layoff form and submit to AskMyHR. You will receive a statement of cost and you must pay the full cost or submit monthly postdated cheques within 30 days of the beginning of your layoff.

For more information, visit the Benefits while on leave or layoff page on Careers and MyHR.

If you provided a personal email address in Employee Self Service, your personal email address will become your login ID to access your Recruitment Management System (RMS) account (the BC Public service Job Opportunities site).

If you did not enter a personal email address into Employee Self Service before your auxiliary appointment came to an end, you will need to send an email to BCPSA.Hiring.Centre@gov.bc.ca to have your profile updated. Once this is complete you will receive an email asking you to reset your password to access the RMS system to view and apply for internal job postings.

The extension of an auxiliary appointment is the same as the renewal of an auxiliary appointment. An auxiliary appointment can be extended /renewed without participating in another hiring competition. Some ministries issue an annual letter to auxiliary employees stating that they will continue to be an auxiliary employee, but this is not the same as extending an existing auxiliary appointment and is not an actual job offer. The employee is still subject to layoff and recall over the course of the term stated in that letter, which is usually for the fiscal year.

Yes, if an auxiliary employee has in-service status (has worked at least 210 hours) and becomes the successful candidate, the TA becomes a new auxiliary appointment.

There are two paths available for an auxiliary employee to become a regular employee: to apply and win a hiring competition to be hired into a regular position, and conversion from auxiliary status to regular status. Because conversion is rare, competing for regular, permanent status roles it the most common path forward, even if the employee is already in the role as an auxiliary.

Auxiliary employees are not eligible to apply for Pacific Leaders scholarships.