AHS wants to slash wages for support staff by 4%: union

Alberta Health Services (AHS) wants to cut pay for healthcare support staff by four per cent, according to their union.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) said in a Thursday evening news release the cut would come into effect immediately after a new agreement is ratified, followed by a three-year wage freeze. AHS initially proposed a one-per-cent cut in February 2020 but talks were stalled amid the pandemic and resumed Thursday.

According to AUPE, these 11,000 workers — employed in cleaning, environmental services, food services, laundry, labs, and other sites — are some of the lowest-paid AHS employees and often work multiple jobs. AUPE vice-president Susan Slade called the cuts “obscene.”

“Everyone knows Premier Kenney and Health Minister Shandro have no respect for front-line health care workers, even after everything they've done for us during the pandemic, and here we see AHS following their orders to add insult to injury,” she said in a news release. “How dare they attack front-line health care workers who are already stressed and beaten down because of the pandemic.”

Slade says the union intends to fight the proposal.

“It seems AHS wasn't content attacking registered nurses with their own proposed wage cut,” Slade said. “Now they're going after the lowest paid and most precariously employed workers in the entire Alberta health care team.”

AUPE represents 95,000 workers in Alberta including government, health-care, and education staff.

Alberta nurses are also facing a potential three-per-cent rollback in pay amid negotiations for a new collective agreement.

The United Nurses of Alberta has said it hopes to come to an agreement, but workers wonder why the government backtracked on its proposal to freeze wages.

Postmedia did not receive a response from the health minister's office or AHS by deadline.