THE Health Employers Association of BC has reached a tentative agreement with members of the Ambulance Paramedics and Ambulance Dispatchers Bargaining Association (APADBA) under the Province’s Shared Recovery Mandate, the Ministry of Finance announced on Sunday.

APADBA represents approximately 5,000 paramedics and ambulance dispatchers in B.C. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 873 represents the employees in the ambulance service. Paramedics and ambulance dispatchers are employees of BC Emergency Health Services, which is part of Provincial Health Services Authority.

Negotiations under the Shared Recovery Mandate support government’s key priorities to improve public services and the health-care system, while supporting the province’s continued economic recovery for all.

Details about the agreement will be available after the ratification process for the union members and the health employers is complete.

More than 500,000 people work throughout the provincial public sector in the core public service, at Crown corporations, in health, community social services, kindergarten-to-Grade 12 public education and at post-secondary institutions and research universities.

Of those people, approximately 393,000 are unionized employees paid under collective agreements or professionals paid through negotiated compensation agreements.