Manitoba health support workers to vote on deal that would keep them among worst paid in Canada, union says

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This article was published 12/08/2024 (445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba health-care support workers are among the lowest paid in Canada, data released by their union amid ongoing contract negotiations suggests.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, which represents about 6,500 health-care support workers in the Interlake-Eastern and Prairie Mountain health regions, publicized the federal labour market and provincial collective agreement data on health-care aide and other support-worker wages Monday.

The release of the figures comes ahead of a scheduled contract vote Tuesday through Thursday.

Union president Kyle Ross said he thinks low wages make it difficult for the province to recruit workers in support roles, playing a role in staff shortages.

“Right now, they’re doing more with less, there’s just not enough of them to do the work,” he said.

The federal labour market numbers indicate that Manitoba has the lowest hourly rate for the most senior health-care aides, at $22 an hour, compared to the other provinces and territories.

Provincial wages for aides at the bottom of the scale — $15.30 an hour — are equivalent to those in New Brunswick.

Median wages for health-care aides in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are also lower than Manitoba’s $19.23 hourly rate, federal figures show, but other provinces and territories median wages are higher.

The union suggested that with the new contract offer, health-care aide wages are projected to remain the lowest, assuming wage increases rise just 2.5 per cent in other provinces where bargaining is ongoing.

Based on a review of collective agreements elsewhere in the country, starting hourly wages for facility jobs, including housekeeping, laundry and dietary aides, as well as cleaners and maintenance workers, are the lowest among the provinces.

Ross said the province should ensure wages are competitive, adding he’s heard from union members who work other part-time jobs on top of their health-support roles to make ends meet.

“(Health care) is no longer an employer of choice, and if we want a strong, robust public health-care system, we need workers to provide that service to Manitobans,” he said.

“When we’re paying the same wages you could make working at McDonald’s… and those (health-care) jobs take special people, and they’re going to take those easier jobs, because working in health care is hard.”

The workers will either vote to accept the latest offer from the province or reject it to give their bargaining committees a strike mandate. Results are expected to be made public Thursday.

Ross said MGEU is continuing to bargain.

“We’ll go back to the table and work with government to find something that’s fair,” he said.

The provincial government directed a request for comment on the figures to Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara’s office.

A spokeswoman declined comment while collective bargaining continues.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca