Government downplaying job cuts with 'full-time equivalent' term, says NAPE

The head of province's largest union says more workers will be affected by the recent budget cuts than the government is letting on.

On Monday the province's health authorities said they were cutting nearly 200 full-time equivalent jobs to meet budget cost reductions laid out by the government.

• Eastern Health cutting jobs, Central Health closing clinics to save after budget cuts 
• Jobs, subsidies and more among casualties of Labrador-Grenfell Health cuts 

NAPE President Jerry Earle says that number is misleading, and that many more people will actually see their jobs cut at the end of the day.

"That's a callous approach they used, to talk about full-time equivalents," Earle told CBC's On the Go on Monday.

"Let's tell people out there how many of their neighbours or their friends, or how many people in their community were cut. We have to look at people here who were affected," he said. 

"A full time equivalent is a 75 per cent position in health care, but actually you could have two part-time people so the number could certainly exceed the 450 positions that are referenced in the budget document," said Earle. 

Remove people, remove services

Earle said government is focusing too much on the numbers and not realizing that downsizing staff is going to undermine services.

"People in this province have to realize, as we have been saying for some weeks, as you remove people you remove services," he said. "How are we going to remove people from the system and expect to provide the same level of care?"

"They can try to hand the responsibilities down to the regional health authorities, with all due respect to the CEOs like David Diamond," said Earle, "but they are making these decisions because of funding that has been removed from health care."