Health-care workers feel shaken after vacations cancelled
The reaction to the cancellation of vacation time for health-care workers in the West Island was so intense that “it was like a bomb,” a union representative said Friday.
“Members were calling us. They're distressed, they're tired, exhausted and crying. They had been hoping to rest during this vacation time,” said Johanne Riendeau, the president of the West Island local of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec.
Nurses, orderlies, technicians and other health-care employees working for the West Island health authority, known as the CIUSSS, were told by memo that all vacations booked between Dec. 13 and Jan. 30 are effectively cancelled because of pandemic stress on the health-care system.
In a written statement, the West Island CIUSSS told the Montreal Gazette on Friday afternoon it has asked employees to voluntarily cancel their vacations during the period from Dec. 13 to Jan. 30.
Spokesperson Hélène BergeronGamache said the health authority is concerned about an employee shortfall that could force some services to be denied amid a surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Bergeron-gamache added that if enough employees don't voluntarily cancel their vacations, the CIUSSS — which includes St. Mary's, Lasalle and the Lakeshore General hospitals — could be forced to cancel the vacations of several employees.
“Vacations for the holiday period of 2020 have not been cancelled by default,” Bergeron-gamache wrote in an emailed statement.
However, that statement contradicts a memo sent to employees Thursday that was obtained by the Montreal Gazette.
“All vacations for the period spanning December 13, 2020 to January 30, 2021 are cancelled, unless there are exceptions related to humanitarian reasons, special personal or family constraints,” the memo said.
The memo then went on to tell employees they could keep their scheduled vacation days and charge overtime for working during the time they have booked off. All employees will still be eligible for four consecutive days off for either Christmas or New Year's Day. This time off, however, could also be cancelled if there is a “force majeure,” the letter specifies.
Riendeau said all health-care employees in the CIUSSS, including managers, were told their vacations were cancelled.
Riendeau said her members have already been limited in their vacation time this year and have logged innumerable overtime hours during the pandemic. Many are now on long-term sick leave and about twice as many employees as normal have retired in the last six months.
“These people are not machines,” Riendeau said. “They really need a pause so they don't make errors, but right now all the nurses, auxiliary nurses and inhalotherapists have all the weight of the (pandemic) on their shoulders. We need the government to do something. They can't keep asking the employees to save the health-care system.”
Speaking at a news conference in Quebec City, Health Minister Christian Dubé said he supports the decision of the West Island CIUSSS to cancel vacations.
“I respect the decision that they have taken, because effectively, in the West Island, the situation, especially when you look at the Lakeshore, and some of those hospitals, the situation is … this is not what we like,” Dubé said. “But I think this was prudent to prevent that.”
Riendeau said she's disappointed by Dubé's support of the measure.
“He has no compassion or recognition for the employees and has no idea what it means to work as a nurse or an inhalotherapist and has no idea the distress and the exhaustion my members are feeling,” she said. “We're asking the government to stop issuing these ministerial directives that violate our rights as salaried employees. Health-care professionals deserve better than this.”
She said she wished management had consulted unionized employees before issuing such an order so her members could have worked out an agreement to cover shortfalls.
“Doing it this way shows a total lack of respect,” she said.