Allied health-care professionals ratify new contracts

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2023 (786 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After five years without a contract, 15 months of negotiation, and nearly a month after imposing, then postponing, a June 15 strike deadline, the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals’ 6,500 members have ratified a new contract with their provincial employers.

Three six-year agreements covering Shared Health, Winnipeg-Churchill and Northern Health Region employers include 8.35 per cent in general wage increases from 2018-23, which is in line with other recent health-care agreements, along with other improvements, the union said in a news release Friday.

The contracts will have the final year of the increases referred to mediated arbitration, with a guaranteed minimum of two per cent for 2023.

Among its many member positions, the union represents rural paramedics, respiratory therapists, dietitians, and lab and diagnostic technologists.

Most members will get a three per cent market adjustment in October 2023 taken from a $32-million wage standardization and market adjustment fund, with the exception of members in emergency medical services, midwifery and perfusion, who will receive special wage adjustments.

The remainder of the $32-million fund will be allocated through agreement by a joint employer-union committee to address retention issues and increasing wage competition among provinces.

“Staffing shortages are dangerously high and morale on the front line is predictably low after more than five years without a contract,” union president Jason Linklater said in the release.

“We are hopeful that the changes in these new agreements will finally bring some much-needed relief to specialized allied health professionals, so Manitoba can keep them on the front line and begin recruiting more to address the staffing crisis.”

Recruitment and retention was a top priority during negotiations, the union said.

While the new contract increases overtime rates and off-shift premiums, it said it expects public health-care employers will continue to rely on overtime for the foreseeable future, given current staffing challenges.

In a statement, Shared Health said contract ratification by MAHCP members — and by MGEU members earlier this week —wraps up bargaining with all health workforce sectors, including nursing, community support, physicians and paramedical sectors.

“The ratification of these latest agreements completes a health care bargaining cycle based on historical pattern bargaining, sector by sector,” the provincial health authority said.

Bargaining was delayed and complicated by restructuring and consolidation of more than 200 collective agreements to 36 collective agreements, the statement said.

“We appreciate the work and collaboration of all bargaining teams and thank them for their tireless efforts to address fundamental issues and merge collective agreements within the employers’ organizations for the benefit of employees, patients, residents and clients,” Shared Health concluded.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca