Retired nurses seek retroactive pay

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/03/2022 (1316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Retired nurses who staffed provincial vaccination clinics and were paid less than their registered-nurse counterparts want retroactive pay.

They also want a process that allows retired nurses to more easily fill staffing gaps in health care.

Shared Health confirmed Wednesday it is reviewing salary scales for nurses who came back from retirement to help with the COVID-19 response.

One of the retired nurses, Shirley Herlick, gathered a group of 20 others and has been advocating for change since last April.

For nearly 45 years, she worked in various nursing jobs in Winnipeg, including intensive care, emergency, and surgery, until she retired in 2019. She has logged more than 600 hours administering COVID-19 vaccines at the downtown site and as part of focused immunization teams since January 2021.

But because she was retired and didn’t have the required number of annual practice hours to renew her registration with the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba, Herlick was hired as an immunizer at a health-care aide salary. She earned $21 per hour, about half of what a registered nurses was paid to work at the clinics, Herlick said.

She said she and other retired nurses have been doing the same work as registered nurses at the immunization clinics, and have even helped inexperienced immunizers. A provincial public health order made it possible for unregulated staff, including retired nurses, to administer COVID-19 vaccinations.

“We have all those other professionals that have never handled a needle before, so we’ve been mentoring a lot of these people also as we’ve been working. So, not only are we doing the role, we’re… assisting significantly to be able to hold that system together,” Herlick said.

After writing repeatedly to politicians and health officials for nearly a year, Herlick met with officials from the provincial government and Shared Health.

One day later, on March 1, Health Minister Audrey Gordon sent a letter to Herlick indicating the vaccine task force and Shared Health would review salary scales and the possibility of retroactive pay. Gordon’s letter stated Shared Health would look at having retired nurses mentor recent graduates.

Shared Health confirmed that Wednesday. A spokesperson stated Shared Health is “in the process of reviewing the salary scales for those retired nurses who were not able to register with the regulatory body to address compensation concerns previously identified. This may include retroactive pay.”

“We are extremely appreciative towards all retired nurses who rejoined the workforce to assist Manitoba’s health-care system during the pandemic throughout the province,” the statement reads.

Herlick said she wants Manitoba to establish a job-classification process that would allow retired nurses to fill staffing shortages. She said there could be an “untapped population” of nurses who’ve been unable to renew their licences because of the active practice hours requirement. The College of Registered Nurses requires 450 practice hours every two years or 1,125 hours in five years to maintain a registered nursing licence.

“They’re so desperately looking for nurses, well, why not look at this population of nurses?” Herlick said.

The Manitoba Nurses’ Union doesn’t represent retired nurses, but president Darlene Jackson said she became aware of the retired nurses’ concerns about three weeks ago and wants to advocate for them to boost staffing levels after the pandemic.

“I’m thrilled that Shared Health is looking at compensating them fairly. I’m very happy with that, but I really would like to look at long-term solutions,” Jackson said.

Early in the pandemic, then-premier Brian Pallister called on retired health-care workers to return to the workforce, and the provincial government fast-tracked a temporary licencing process with waived registration fees for retired nurses to get licenced again. But Herlick and the MNU have said the number of required practice hours was still a barrier.

Linda Hughes, another retired nurse, also stepped up to help during the pandemic. In an email Wednesday, she expressed support for retired nurses to find a way to comply with standards while still alleviating the nursing shortage.

“If a new job classification for retired nurses was created, there would need to be standards and safeguards in place to ensure that retired nursing practice was safe for the public. I think that this is possible,” she wrote.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com