Support staff demand COVID pay bump

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This article was published 02/02/2022 (960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP is backing health-care support workers in their call for a wage top-up to recognize the added risk and responsibility of working in a pandemic.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 204 president Debbie Boissonneault urged the government to provide a pandemic pay bump — similar to what has been given to nurses — to the more than 14,000 support staff who work on the front lines.

“We’re talking about health-care workers who literally do a lot of the heavy lifting in our health-care system,” Kinew said. “This government in Manitoba has left the support staff behind.”

In December 2020, Shared Health agreed to provide redeployment and reassignment allowances to nurses at four hospitals who were reassigned, redeployed or working in emergency at hospitals with intensive care units.

The allowances were negotiated through the collective bargaining process.

Boissonneault said her members feel neglected by the government while negotiations for a new collective agreement have slowed to a crawl. The union has been without a contract for five years.

“Every day we talk to the front-line support staff and they are angry,” Boissonneault said. “It is no secret that our members are overwhelmed, short-staffed and are now being mandated to work overtime.”

Boissonneault said she requested a meeting with Health Minister Audrey Gordon at the end of the year to discuss a $5 an hour recognition pay for her members but was told such discussions must happen at the bargaining table.

CUPE 204 had signed a memorandum of understanding with the employer to provide a premium to staff who are reassigned, redeployed or have their regular shift disrupted.

However, Boissonneault said support staff working in a number of areas, including care homes and emergency departments, do not receive the same premiums as the nurses they work alongside on COVID-19 wards or during outbreaks.

“The virus does not see classification, it does not see department, the virus just attacks and we think the government putting divides in this COVID pay has made it very hard for the support staff to feel valued,”Boissonneault said.

A request for comment from Gordon’s office was deferred to Shared Health.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Shared Health said the authority appreciates the dedication of all health-care workers during the pandemic.

“Negotiations continue with Manitoba’s facility and community support sector unions and are scheduled to commence with unions representing allied health staff on new, fair and long-term agreements,” the statement said.

Kinew said support staff should not have to wait until a new collective agreement is finalized to receive pandemic recognition pay.

“Taking a concrete step immediately to offer this recognition pay would be important and then concluding a fair deal as soon as possible,” Kinew said. “No more dragging your heels at the bargaining table and throwing up unnecessary delays.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca