CCA raise should 'make life easier' for other health workers, says N.S. minister

A surprise pay bump for continuing care assistants should have trickle-down benefits for other health-care workers in Nova Scotia, said the province's labour relations minister Thursday.

Allan MacMaster said while contract negotiations with other unions will be dealt with separately, the 23 per cent increase announced for CCAs should have a positive effect on the health-care sector, particularly its nurses, by alleviating the strain on resources.

"My hope is that by attracting more CCAs and retaining more CCAs, it's going to make life easier for everybody else in the health-care system," he told reporters Thursday.

"People working in health care, like any industry, are always going to be interested in a higher wage, in higher pay. Everybody wants that. But the other thing people want is a workplace that is functioning, and functioning in a way where it's not causing them undue stress and maybe causing them to leave an occupation because it's stressful."

CCAs urged to return to work

Premier Tim Houston said the raise for CCAs, which was due to come into effect Thursday, is intended to reflect how poorly paid the role has been in the province while hopefully attracting people to the profession. 

During a COVID-19 briefing Wednesday, Houston directly addressed overworked CCAs who left their jobs during the pandemic and pleaded with them to return to their roles.

A number of public sector contracts are up for negotiation and MacMaster said it's only natural that people would be looking at the CCA raise and wondering what it means for them.

That raise, however, was about recognizing the "critical component" CCAs represent in the system and the fact there aren't nearly enough of them, he said. That has slowed admissions to long-term care homes, among other things. The government has pledged to add thousands of people to the workforce.

NDP says other workers need help, too

NDP Leader Gary Burrill heralded the raise as an "important victory" for people who have long advocated for better compensation.

When it comes to trying to address service challenges in long-term care, in particular, pay for CCAs represented "a critical logjam," said Burrill.

"So you could build all the facilities in the world, you weren't going to solve it without drawing people into the profession by paying them properly," he told reporters. "You can't get people out of hospitals into the long-term care placements they should be in if you have not got people there to look after them."

MacMaster said other unions might not get raises of a similar magnitude, but Burrill noted CCAs are not the only low-earning workers vital to the long-term care system.

The government must also recognize that long-term care homes require many workers who struggle to make ends meet, he said. That includes people who work in laundry, housekeeping and the kitchen.

"These people have been working short also for years, and the core of the reason that they've been working short is they have not been paid enough," said Burrill.

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