Too many ‘deal breakers’ for HSC nurses

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This article was published 14/06/2024 (452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The latest contract rejected by Health Sciences Centre nurses fails to address workplace safety and is pushing some to leave their jobs in the public system desperate to attract staff, former nurses say.

A confidential copy of the 119-page document, obtained by the Free Press, doesn’t spell out a plan to address workplace violence as incidents spike at Manitoba’s largest hospital or signal an end to mandatory overtime.

“I think it’s a deal breaker for nurses staying in those areas and continuing to work in those areas,” said retired nurse Rhonda Nichol, who’s been hearing from those who voted against the contract. It was narrowly ratified last month by nurses at health regions across the province except for 3,400 at HSC employed by Shared Health, who could go on strike — or just leave.

Another “deal breaker” is mandatory overtime, said Nichol, whose concern for the health care system compelled her to run (unsuccessfully) for the Liberals in the Oct. 3 election. While the government has a plan to encourage part-time and private agency nurses to enter the provincial float pool, no specific targets or timelines for reducing mandatory overtime are stated in the collective agreement, she said.

“There’s so much violence and unpredictable behaviour nowadays from both patients and families, and we know that the majority of that does happen in the ER,” said Nichol, who worked in oncology at the Grace Hospital and remains a registered nurse.

“Would you want to commit to another (four) years of working in emergency if you know that there’s no long-term plan for your safety there?”

The collective agreement recognizes the employer’s obligation to provide a safe workplace but doesn’t say what steps it will take.

“What is the plan from the government to address that? I believe that is part of the reason why the nurses at HSC under Shared Health aren’t happy with this contract,” she said.

Another nurse who’s thrown her hat in the political ring said violence in health care settings is an issue.

“We have a shared concern regarding safety — all nurses do,” Carla Compton, NDP candidate running in Tuesday’s Tuxedo byelection, said Friday.

“When I do speak with nurses and people who work in the system, they’re absolutely raising concerns about safety in the workplace,” said Compton, a hemodialysis nurse at St. Boniface Hospital. Without having spoken to HSC nurses about their contract, she said she couldn’t comment on their concerns.

The latest collective agreement doesn’t solve all the problems in health care but is a first step “in addressing some very large issues,” Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said in an email Friday.

The union said it has been dealing with safety concerns. It filed a grievance nearly a year ago complaining that the HSC campus — especially parkades — are unsafe. In April, an arbitrator agreed there are “unacceptable levels of risk” and gave the employer 30 days to develop a safety plan that reasonably addresses and mitigates the concerns.

That safety plan has “a number of deficiencies,” Jackson said. “If the employer is unwilling to address safety issues appropriately, MNU will return to the arbitrator to seek a remedy.”

As for mandatory overtime, the union said the contract offers incentives to address it. A government side-deal to the agreement aims to draw more nurses into the public system and reduce the “prolific” use of private agency nurses. It prohibits health regions from hiring a private agency nurse who is also an employee of the health region.

The union has met with Shared Health’s negotiation team several times in recent weeks and has another meeting scheduled Wednesday. Jackson said the MNU believed the latest collective agreement was a fair offer based on the contract improvements, and was a good step towards improving the lot of Manitoba nurses.

They’re communicating with the employer daily and once they have a final tentative offer, they’ll set a date for a vote.

If it’s rejected, the nurses would be poised to strike. An essential services agreement means there wouldn’t be a full-blown nurses’ strike, but job action would have an impact.

“Of course we are concerned about a strike,” Jackson said. “Labour stoppages are hard on the staff and patients involved. The system can’t afford to lose any more nurses.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca