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December 11, 1998
Nurses reject Foley report as an inadequate response to the looming nursing shortage
While funding for new positions is welcomed by nurses, the mediator's report would also impose major contract concessions that are completely unfair and unacceptable
The Nurses' Bargaining Association has rejected the report of Mediator Brian Foley as an inadequate solution to the workload crisis and to the nursing shortage now confronting BC's health care system.
"While Mr. Foley took a fair approach to our workload issues, and a fair approach to the issue of standardizing all nurses to the provisions of the provincial contract, he did not adequately address compensation issues that are essential to attracting and retaining nurses in the province if we are to avoid the nursing shortages that are already ravaging our health care facilities," says Cathy Ferguson president of the BC Nurses' Union, the largest of the three unions in the Association.
"Mr. Foley's report would impose serious concessions on our members that are completely unfair and unacceptable, and would leave us worse off, in many ways, than we were before our bargaining began."
The increases Foley recommends for the premiums nurses receive for being on-call and being in-charge of wards or units are insulting (up from $1 an hour to $1.25 an hour for being on-call and $1.50 after 72 hours in a month, and from 90 cents an hour to $1.25 for being in charge).
"These increases would do nothing to stop health employers from abusing the on-call provisions and avoiding any responsibility to hire more nurses," Ferguson said. "The paltry on-call premium has been the employers' ball-and-chain solution to the nursing shortage. Instead of hiring another nurse, more and more managers are simply telling nurses to go home and stand-by on-call for $1. Raising this to $1.25 would do nothing to address that situation, and often our members are forced to pay a babysitter $3.50 an hour so they can be prepared to go to work if they are called in. This is not the way to show nurses that we are valued and appreciated in BC.
"This is a serious workload problem for nurses. And what's most upsetting is that the cost of our proposal (to increase the on-call premium to $5 an hour) would be less to cover all nurses across the province than the amount the government allocated last spring to pay 300 eligible rural doctors $20 an hour to be on-call."
Foley did not address nurses' proposals for increases in premiums for working evenings, nights and weekends at all. And he ignored pay equity.
The proposed increase for in-charge pay would continue to encourage employers to eliminate head nurses and nursing supervisors who used to be available on each ward for support to bedside nurses. Now, the nurse who is in-charge must not only attend to her bedside responsibilities but must do the work of another person who used to be paid at a higher job classification to supervise the ward.
One of the serious concessions Mr. Foley is recommending would prevent many nurses from receiving the in-charge premium at all. The concession would restrict the impact of a 1997 arbitration decision that required employers to pay a nurse the in-charge premium during day shifts when non-union managers are on site.
Foley also recommends a rollback of Workers' Compensation Board payments to nurses, in a manner that the unions believe violates the law.
On vehicle provisions for community nurses, Mr. Foley not only failed to recommend any improvements, what he did recommend actually constitutes another rollback.
There are also serious problems with the language he has recommended to implement the hiring of more full-time nurses. There are no provisions requiring employers to convert casual nurses in acute care hospitals to regular full-time status. And there is no requirement on employers to provide data so nurses can evaluate the impact of new nursing positions on the use of overtime, on the number of hours worked on a casual basis, on the incidents of injuries and the amount of sick time.
"While we appreciate some of the work Mr. Foley has done, we are extremely disappointed with key aspects, Ferguson said. "His concessions are completely unacceptable. And by failing to adequately address our fair compensation issues, we will have an increasingly hard time attracting and retaining nurses in BC, no matter how much money is allocated for new nursing positions."
Ferguson said she hoped the provincial government will come to understand nurses' concerns. The nurses' bargaining committee is open to more discussions on the issues at any time.
Union members are scheduled to vote on Mr. Foley's package on January 26.
Report out meetings are scheduled to begin January 5, 1999. Watch your bulletin boards for time and place.
If you need assistance contact:
Communications Officers:
| Shirley Ross |
604-868-6864 |
| Art Moses |
604-868-6865 |
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