NIAGARA – The Niagara Community Care Access Centre’s decision to award the visiting nurses contract to two agencies from outside the community is a blow to more than 150 local health care workers and to the clients they serve.
Staff at the 85-year-old Victorian Order of Nurses got the news Tuesday that their jobs would be gone by early fall.
The work is going to the St. Elizabeth’s Health Care from Toronto and to Care Partners from Stratford.
“They told us there is no problem with the quality of our work,” said Debbie Charbonneau, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 267, which represents 110 registered nurses, personal support workers and office and support staff at the VON. Another union represents 46 registered practical nurses who are also affected.
“This is strictly a dollars decision, not a health care one,” Charbonneau said. “The other agencies submitted lower bids for the work, and they plan to offer jobs that pay less, with no benefits or pensions. We’re already losing visiting nurses to hospitals where nurses are better paid.”
Many long-term clients, such as those on dialysis, have a personal relationship with the nurse who visits them daily. They are understandably upset at the prospect for change.
“I’m upset that we are losing the work to agencies from outside the region, and I am doubly upset that these agencies think they can come in and hire us to work under their contracts,” Charbonneau said. “I don’t know where they are going to get the nurses they need. I’m not sure the staff of the new agencies will be able to do the work we
do. I don’t know if that was even considered.”
Charbonneau blamed the situation on the Harris Government’s decision to require CCACs to constantly re-tender programs. “It guarantees regular upheaval in home care programs. There is no way to build a stable career when every three years you know someone will undercut your agency’s contract and send your wages plummeting.
“Our managers at the VON tried to pay a fair wage – less than hospitals, but decent – so we lost the contract. We have lost it all: decent pay, benefits and pensions. There are nurses who have worked 25 years for the VON who are on the verge of retiring, and it’s all gone.”
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For further information:
Debbie Charbonneau – 905-684-2693
Virgery Vanier – 905-227-3770
