Union files grievance, calls on WRHA, Shared Health to pick up pace on support worker contract rollout

The union representing thousands of support workers is calling on the organization that co-ordinates health care in the province and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority to pick up the pace and deliver on a contract agreement completed last fall.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees has filed a grievance against the WRHA and Shared Health suggesting both have been too slow to implement some of the details negotiated in September.

"The health authorities and government are once again treating health-care support staff like they don't matter," Debbie Boissonneault, CUPE 204 president, said in a statement on Monday.

"It took years of hard bargaining to negotiate this contract with this government, and now they are delaying implementation of important improvements for health-care support workers."

On Sept. 23, 2022, about 18,000 health-care support workers voted to ratify a deal reached between CUPE and the WRHA and Shared Health. Those staff are home care workers, health-care aides, dietary and nutrition staff, security guards, laundry and maintenance, clerks and more who work in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

The seven-year deal they signed is retroactive to 2017 and extends to 2024. It includes yearly wage hikes that amount to a 9.6 per cent bump overall.

The deal also included a pay increase for night shift workers and those staffed on weekends, improvements to family sick leave and a signing bonus, the union said last fall. 

The deal would also add coffee breaks for home care workers, one of the line items CUPE 204 said has yet to be implemented.

In the Monday news release, CUPE 204 criticized the WRHA and Shared Health — which co-ordinates health-care service delivery in the province — for not moving faster to roll out the negotiated changes.

"While the government was quick to mandate overtime for many health-care support staff, it has taken over three months and counting to provide the promised increases to shift premiums, vacation scheduling, and even coffee breaks for home care workers: all of which were touted as important for recruiting and retaining front-line health-care workers," the news release reads.

In a statement, Shared Health said there is a lot of work required post-ratification associated with amalgamating over 100 past collective agreements into one, and all that entails on the back end.

Shared Health also suggested it's on track to tie up all loose ends within the timeframe agreed to by CUPE 204.

"This is a unique and complex implementation that will be concluded within the 120 post-ratification timeframe that was negotiated and agreed to by the parties," a Shared Health spokesperson said in a statement.

"The signing bonus and retroactive salary adjustments were processed in early December, well within the 120-day timeframe, providing individual staff with a lump sum payment according to the terms of their employment."

Boissonneault suggested the WRHA and Shared Health are "dragging their heels to the very last minute."

More from CBC Manitoba: