WRHA could spend as much as $5M in severance to management

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This article was published 07/06/2017 (3112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s expected to cost the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority more than $5 million in severance payments to slash 132 management positions at the behest of the Pallister government.

In keeping with a government order to cut 15 per cent of its management staff, the WRHA said Tuesday it would eliminate 132 positions.

On Wednesday, in response to questions posed by the Free Press, the health authority revealed it could pay as much as $5.3 million in severance to staff being laid off.

A spokeswoman said in an email that the final figure won’t be known until the region receives signed letters of acceptance from employees being offered severance packages. She did not say how many employees that would involve.

The 132 positions cost the WRHA $15 million a year. However, the actual savings from the cuts will be closer to $10 million, in part, because a number of the positions being eliminated were already vacant, spokeswoman Anne Bennett said.

As well, 18 staff in deleted positions are being offered other employment within the health region.

“We’re not providing a list of positions (being eliminated) to protect the individuals’ privacy,” Bennett said.

She promised to provide a breakdown this week between administrative and corporate positions being cut and those relating to patient care.

The Free Press had asked for a complete list of the 132 positions being dissolved.

Meanwhile, Manitoba’s NDP Opposition said it has identified three of the positions being cut.

“At a time when the government has caused so much disruption and confusion in the system by shutting down emergency rooms, the WRHA has confirmed that it is also firing people who support patient care,” said interim NDP leader Flor Marcelino in a statement to the Free Press.

Among the cuts, she said, are a manager of geriatric mental health, a manager of patient safety and a patient flow manager.

“The government is firing the very people who are supposed to manage the massive disruption Pallister himself has caused,” Marcelino said, referring to a controversial city hospital reorganization plan announced in April.

Health authorities operating outside the Manitoba capital are also required to reduce the number of management positions by 15 per cent.

The Northern Health Authority is eliminating seven jobs, while Prairie Mountain Health in western Manitoba will axe 24 positions and Southern Health will cut 19. The Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority has yet to announce the number of positions it will eliminate.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca