Dynacare workers provide essential services that must be maintained during strike, labour board rules By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 3:57 PM CDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026 Last Modified: 6:30 PM CDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026 Updates

The Manitoba Labour Board has ruled Dynacare workers are essential employees and their services must be maintained during a labour dispute.

The ruling, issued Thursday afternoon, said the board was satisfied that essential services “must be maintained in the event of job action involving Dynacare and the (Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals) in order to prevent a threat to the health, safety and welfare of residents of Manitoba.”

The private company’s 350 lab technicians and technologists in Winnipeg, Brandon and other communities went on strike briefly Sept. 8 before the labour board issued an interim order forcing them back to work while it decided the essential-services question.

The dispute is over a significant wage gap between Dynacare employees and people doing the same work in the public health-care sector. The Dynacare workers have been without a contract since March 31.

The board ruled with evidence provided by witnesses who spoke on behalf of Dynacare and the province during a Sept. 15 hearing.

“Collectively, they testified that the withdrawal of Dynacare’s services would significantly reduce the community’s access to specimen collection, laboratory testing and the reporting of diagnostic results across Manitoba,” the written decision said.

The labour board concluded that in the event of a strike, community-based specimen collection and laboratory testing and reporting of results must continue.

The board said it has appointed representatives to moderate discussions between Dynacare and MAHCP while they come to terms on an essential services agreement.

A week before the work stoppage, Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino asked the labour board to suspend the strike over concerns it could have “catastrophic” impacts on the health of Manitobans. The board was asked to determine whether an essential services agreement was needed.

MAHCP argued that in the event of a strike, specimen-collection services could be taken over by Shared Health.

During the Sept. 15 labour board hearing, Dr. AbdulRazaq Sokoro, chief operating officer of diagnostic services at Shared Health, said a strike at the laboratories would lead to unsustainable pressure on the public health-care system alongside testing and treatment delays for some patients.

The labour board agreed.

“There is a paucity of evidence demonstrating that Shared Health has the capacity to absorb a sudden and substantial influx of patients that would otherwise be served by Dynacare… any finding that Shared Health could readily undertake the volume of work at issue would require a compelling evidentiary foundation. The Board is not satisfied that such a foundation exists,” the ruling said.

“Collectively, they testified that the withdrawal of Dynacare’s services would significantly reduce the community’s access to specimen collection, laboratory testing and the reporting of diagnostic results across Manitoba.”

The five-year contract the NDP government signed with the American-owned company last year included increasing access and quality of service, but MAHCP president Jason Linklater said Dynacare employees are paid 20 to 50 per cent less than their public-sector counterparts.

As an act of protest while the labour board mulled over its decision, many Dynacare employees refused to work overtime shifts. The company has struggled to find technicians to take OT shifts in its three Winnipeg facilities that operate on Saturdays.

A Dynacare employee, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution, said she works at least one hour of overtime per day, and up to seven hours extra on Saturdays.

“You’re passionate on what you’re doing, right? So you want the work to be done,” she said.

If technicians don’t work overtime, samples can sit for days and, depending on the specimen, expire and need to be redone, the worker said, adding Dynacare is increasingly relying on overtime and fewer employees to handle a growing workload.

The company’s 14 labs across Winnipeg see 5,600 patients per day, on average.

Another worker, who spoke anonymously with the Free Press, expressed concern about the ruling.

“They took away our biggest leverage against a for-profit company. The fight will last longer this way. Now the patients will also suffer from delayed testing, processing and longer wait times,” they said.

Linklater said employees would continue to refuse overtime while a new contract is negotiated, and said there’s a chance the ruling will send some workers packing.

“(The province’s) choice not to ensure Dynacare wages are are commensurate with the public sector is a choice in not investing in Manitobans who do that type of work. I know that they would like to unload it off as a Dynacare problem, but at the end of the day, it’s a government problem,” he said.

“They took away our biggest leverage against a for-profit company… Now the patients will also suffer from delayed testing, processing and longer wait times.”

MAHCP is still reviewing the ruling with its legal team before deciding what its next steps will be, or whether it will appeal.

“This strike was a tool that these workers had to force Dynacare back to the table and then government stepped in immediately and took that tool away,” he said. “The government owns the contract with Dynacare. Nobody should be letting them off the hook for that decision.”

The labour board ordered Dynacare to provide staffing levels and vacancy rates at all of its locations over the last six months. It also asked the company to provide any internal modelling done for staffing levels in the event of a strike.

Marcelino was not made available for comment on the ruling. In a statement, a spokesperson said the province is reviewing the decision but it would continue to call on Dynacare to resume negotiations.

A Dynacare spokesperson said in an emailed statement the company remains committed to reaching a “fair and sustainable” agreement with the union.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca