ATHABASCA — Most of the talk around healthcare is the need for doctors and nurses but far more jobs that those are facing similar shortages.
Health Sciences of Alberta (HSAA) is the union for all technical healthcare staff from speech language pathologists to x-ray technicians, phlebotomists, and more and when they are short staffed it impacts how the hospital can manage.
“A lot of interference from the government became very clear a short time in that anything that was monetary was being directed by the government. That's why a mediator needed to be brought in,” HSAA vice president Leanne Alfaro said Aug. 11.
Some of the professions in HSAA were about to be forced with massive cuts in wages right after coming through a global pandemic and being hailed as heroes.
“The proposals on the table were, for over half of our members, significant wage rollbacks with up to 10 per cent for some of our large professions,” she said. “And just after working through a pandemic those concessions that were on the table were pretty insulting.”
And there’s shortages across the province of lab and x-ray techs, Alfaro noted.
“There're call outs going out … for somebody to come because they're short staffed, and without them, they have nobody to do the service. So, they're putting out calls with double time, pay your hotel, pay your mileage, pay your meals, anything they can do to get somebody there to provide the services,” she said. “So yes, even if there's doctors there or nursing, if you don't have the people that perform the diagnostic testing how do you diagnose and treat?”
There’s a disconnect she said between these call outs offering the world and then at the bargaining table trying to cut these same people by eight and 10 per cent.
“How are we going to recruit and retain? How do we retain who we have and how do we recruit and compete? It's a global shortage, it's not here, it's not just in Canada. It's globally. So how are we going to become a place where people want to come? Where is that Alberta advantage?”
Then add the insult of Dr. Deena Hinshaw getting a six-figure bonus.
“Right after our tentative agreement is ratified for our members, we saw the surplus and then you have these massive bonuses for higher ups,” Alfaro said.
The agreement gave moderate raises and was retroactive to April 1, 2020, and will expire March 31, 2024.
