Ottawa care home manager suspended

OTTAWA • The manager of an Ottawa retirement home has been suspended amid allegations that a housekeeper at the home was bumped from the COVID-19 vaccine queue last weekend so that the manager’s wife could be vaccinated instead.

Riverstone Retirement Communities, the company that operates Stirling Park Retirement Community, confirmed it is investigating “after being made aware of concerns with regard to recent vaccination efforts at one of our communities” and said the company takes the matter seriously.

Staff members, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs, said in a letter to their union that the housekeeper was in tears after being told she would not be vaccinated.

The woman who allegedly received the vaccine had no association with the home and should not have even been in the building under public health rules, said the health care union that represents the home’s workers.

“From our perspective, it’s shameful,” said Charlene Nero of The Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 3000, which represents workers at the home. “These are precarious workers.”

The union has filed complaints with Ottawa Public Health and the Ministry of Health. It has also filed a grievance with the retirement home, saying it failed to administer the vaccine appropriately and didn’t maintain a safe workplace.

Stirling Park Retirement Community, which has had COVID-19 outbreaks, was among high-risk retirement homes in Ottawa that were prioritized for vaccines. It was also among the first to receive doses of Moderna when they arrived in the city.

Riverstone Retirement Communities said it “supports the prioritization of residents, employees and essential caregivers in order to provide the safest possible environment for our residents.”

On Sunday, according to the letter from staff, some employees and caregivers were told there would be five doses of Moderna vaccine left over after residents received their first doses. Three health care workers, one essential caregiver and one housekeeper all put up their hands for the remaining vaccines.

Staff said the housekeeper was bumped so the wife of a senior executive could get vaccinated. The woman isn’t an essential caregiver, the union alleged, and shouldn’t have been inside the home or on the vaccine list.

The letter said staff members were upset but afraid to raise the issue.

“We really feel that this is unfair and an abuse of power.”

Nero agreed. “(These workers) ... in addition to suffering the slight of being told they are not important enough to get the vaccine, they are being put at risk.”