Workers protest lack of pay bump
Health-care staff supported by neighbouring hospital CEOS
About 100 Niagara health-care workers spent their lunch hour Thursday protesting outside St. Catharines hospital carrying signs that said “Essential but Excluded.”
The workers represent diagnostic imaging staff, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dialysis techs, biomedical techs and many more from Niagara Health hospitals in St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara
Falls, as well at Hotel Dieu Shaver Rehabilitation Centre.
The issue is they aren’t receiving the $4 pandemic pay boost the provincial government has given some of their hospital colleagues, said Brenda Allan, president of OPSEU Local 215.
“We are here giving voice to the fact that what we do is essential, and when others are getting pandemic pay, and we are not, it’s not fair,” Allan said. “They are making a mistake. We work beside people getting the pandemic pay, and it’s like we have been forgotten.”
Allan came to the protest armed with an open letter of support from chief executive officers of hospitals in Niagara, Hamilton, Haldimand, Brant and Burlington.
The letter said there was an “unfortunate” lack of clarity regarding pandemic pay eligibility, and the situation is impacting employee morale and undermining “the recognition they receive from their communities.”
“We value the efforts of all of our employees, and we believe they all deserve recognition for their contributions,” the letter said. “We are therefore urging you to extend pandemic pay to all hospital workers.
“Our entire workforce is at the forefront of the provincial pandemic response, working around the clock in challenging circumstances to assure safe, high quality, sustainable care for the people we serve.”
Niagara Health president Lynn Guerriero said the Ministry of Health reaffirmed its position Wednesday that hospitals cannot use government funding to extend pandemic pay to employees deemed ineligible under the pandemic pay
program.
She called it a “disappointing development” and said Niagara Health would continue its advocacy for governmentfunded pandemic pay for all hospital employees.
“I am working with the presidents and CEOS from our regional hospitals to encourage the government to reconsider and make all hospital employees eligible for pandemic pay,” Guerriero said.
“Our CEO, Dr. Tom Stewart, also continues to raise this issue at the highest levels of government. We are incredibly grateful for the way everyone has stepped up and performed admirably during this challenging time.”
St. Catharines New Democrat MPP Jenny Stevens donned a union T-shirt and lent her support.
“Doug Ford stands up every day and calls them heroes — and then excludes them,” Stevens said. “They are heroes, and it is time to treat them that way.”
Niagara West Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff said he recognizes the efforts of health-care workers and also called them heroes.
“We cannot thank them enough,” Oosterhoff said. “As Premier Ford has said, we truly wish we could provide pandemic pay to every single front-line worker who has contributed to the fight against COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, the federal government has only provided limited funding through our shared agreement and so we are unable to expand the pandemic pay program beyond the over 375,000 employees already deemed eligible.”
Oosterhoff said Ontario was one of the first provinces to roll out pandemic pay.
“Ours is the largest program of its kind in the country and unprecedented in the province’s history — benefiting over 375,000 employees across 2,000 employers,” he said.
Thursday’s protest was also noteworthy for the way it ended — precisely at one o’clock.
Asked where everyone went all of a sudden, Allan said lunch was over, and they had to get back to their patients.
“They are heroes, and it is time to treat them that way.”
JENNY STEVENS ST. CATHARINES MPP