LPNs should be paid the same: nurses union

HALIFAX — All licensed practical nurses in Nova Scotia should be paid a wage that takes into account their increased duties, the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union says.

About 400 LPNs who work in the former Central District Health Authority and are represented by the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union received a recent 12 per cent pay increase after an independent arbitrator found that the scope of their duties had changed significantly.

“That doesn't negate the fact that the scope of all LPNs' jobs in this province has increased,” said NSNU president Janet Hazelton.

“The right thing to do is to apply this wage rate to all LPNs regardless of where they work because the scope is the same. The rationale for increasing their pay is that the scope changed. It's not just their scope that changed, all of them did. The right and fair thing to do is apply (the wage hike) to everyone.”

Hazelton said the scope of LPNs' duties have changed because some physicians' tasks have evolved into the work of registered nurses and some RN responsibilities have been shifted to LPNs. The increased LPN responsibilities include administering IVs, hanging blood and blood products, physical assessments and taking charge of care team assistants and immunization clinics.

The NSGEU local that represents the 400 LPNs who were awarded the increase, many of whom work at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, had argued in a 2014 grievance that the LPNs were doing work above their pay grade and deserved to be reclassified.

Other locals of NSGEU and other health-care unions have made the same argument, Hazelton said, but they did not have contract language to grieve job reclassification. That means that the 400 LPNs affected will see their hourly wage jump from about $27 to $30, Hazelton said. The 2,600 or so other LPNs across the province will have their wages lag behind despite the fact that most of them work for the same employer, the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

Hazelton offered a scenario where an LPN represented by the nurses union and working at the Dartmouth General Hospital could be reassigned to the QEII, which is contractually permitted. The NSNU nurse would be working beside NSGEU nurses at the QEII, doing the same job but earning 12 per cent less.

“With the pandemic, there has been a lot of anxiety, a lot of pressure on health-care workers,” Hazelton said. “Now, the LPNs that didn't get this award are feeling very frustrated and angry, demoralized. They feel and they should feel that their work is as valuable as the nurses that got the award.”