Health-care workers rally for their $4 an hour
About 30 health-care workers working for Hamilton Health Sciences rallied outside Hamilton General Hospital on Thursday seeking the pandemic topup pay granted to their hospital colleagues by the provincial government.
The rally was one of several taking place across Ontario, according to a press release from CUPE.
Dave Murphy, president of CUPE Local 7800, said hospital workers such as clerical, pharmaceutical, social workers and those responsible for sterilizing the hospital’s equipment have not been receiving the $4-anhour bump announced by the provincial government starting April 24.
That increase does not cover all hospital workers and CUPE is asking Premier Doug Ford to change that.
Murphy said the workers are in the wards working in proximity to the nurses and PSWs who have been exposed to COVID-19 while treating the patients suffering with the virus.
He said workers want the same level of personal protective equipment as the other staff at risk of exposure. Nurses, respiratory technicians and others receive N95 masks, while others are only provided with a surgical mask.
Murphy contends the surgical masks do not offer the same level of protection as do the
N95 masks, but his members are cleaning rooms of patients with the virus and sterilizing the equipment used to treat them.