Group Health Center is currently engaged in labor negotiations regarding wages and job security with CUPE Local 894, which represents more than 200 employees.
As Group Health Center prepares to deregister more than 10,000 patients, the union representing hundreds of employees fears layoffs will occur.
CUPE Local 894 represents a total of 221 group health center health care workers and administrative support team members. The organization recently announced it would disenroll 10,176 patients on May 31, citing a lack of primary care providers.
“The union has questioned layoffs starting in 2023, but employers have not been able to assure the union that there will be no layoffs,” a CUPE Local 894 news release said.
Like many public servants affected by Ontario's Bill 124, union-represented workers were capped at a maximum of 1 per cent pay increases each year for three years. The government repealed the law in February after losing lawsuits and appeals brought by labor groups.
Local 894 said workers desperately need fair wage increases that reflect the cost of living and high inflation rates, and that GHC has struggled to retain staff for years.
“If group health centers want to retain their staff, they need pay adjustments that are comparable to the pay increases we are seeing in Ontario's hospital sector,” Local 894 president Tracy Fabricino said in a news release. Ta. . “The last thing we want is for this center to lose any more staff, and without real wage increases, that's exactly what will happen.”
“Our employees are overworked, stressed and burnt out. We don't want to quit, but we have no choice but to do so if our members can't afford to pay their bills,” she said. added.
The union and GHC management held labor negotiations for five days last week and are scheduled to resume negotiations on April 11th.
GHC is seeking $300,000 in one-time funding from the Department of Health to provide relief through Bill 124 to cover wage increases, with an additional $100,000 in ongoing funding requested. There is.
In an interview earlier this week, GHC communications manager Jordan Ginn said nearly every public sector sector in Ontario is seeking similar relief.
Asked Friday about possible job cuts, Ginn said he could not comment on the details of ongoing negotiations.
“We remain focused on reaching fair and sustainable solutions that support our employees while preserving the quality health care services our communities depend on,” he said.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles and her party's health critic France Gelinas were in Sault Ste. Murray touched on the subject of Bill 124 in an interview with SooToday on Wednesday.
Stiles said the NDP has been trying to get the provincial government to reconsider Bill 124 for years.
“We told them this would never stand up in court. They didn’t listen and went ahead with a pay freeze for health workers and education workers, but the problem is if they don’t pay, It shouldn’t happen,” she said. she said.
The problem, Stiles said, is that many workers have left the state as a result of the 1% pay freeze.
Fabricino said in a news release that Local 894 is also concerned about the patients who will be orphaned by GHC.
“These patients must access community resources such as the emergency room at Sioux Regional Hospital or walk through clinics that are already overburdened by our health care system, which cannot provide the consistent care they need.” she said.
GHC announced in January that it would remove 10,000 patients from its roster in response to a shortage of primary care providers.
