For Immediate Release July 21, 2003
Mediator’s recommendations unacceptable
Patients, Nurses, and health care in Alberta would suffer
Don’t Legislate! Don’t Arbitrate! Negotiate!
Alberta’s Registered nurses are outraged that mediator Alan Beattie has made recommendations for a new contract that closely follow the Health Regions’ proposals for contract rollbacks. Beattie almost completely ignored nurses’ proposals for making improvements in nursing conditions and health care. To make matters even worse the mediator made remarks to the effect that nurses should accept all the rollbacks and worsening conditions or the provincial government could force a contract on nurses with legislation.
“The mediator’s recommendations would gut many of the current nurses’ contract safeguards and provisions,” says United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith. “It’s a real threat to the ability of nurses to provide safe, high quality patient and client care. Imposing this kind of contract on nurses would drive younger nurses who are concerned about safety right out of this province, and would lead many senior nurses to move faster to retirement,” she says. “It would have a serious impact on the ability of our health system to provide good care for Albertans.”
“The only appropriate government intervention in these negotiations would be to insist the Health Regions go back to bargaining seriously and look at the issues nurses are raising.”
UNA will be taking the mediator’s recommendations to a vote of the full membership, nearly 20,000 Registered Nurses (RNs) and Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPNs) in September. “We need to dispel any delusion that these recommendations are acceptable to nurses in Alberta,” says Heather Smith.
The nurses have been in negotiations with the Health Regions since January when the Employers brought forward demands for 130 rollbacks to the nurses’ contract. The changes would virtually guarantee that the health of both patients and nurses would be put at risk.
The rollbacks include cutting guaranteed time off for part-time nurses, and giving health employers the power to move nurses from site to site at will. Moving nurses from site to site raises many safety concerns not the least of which is the fact that the Ontario government linked nurses working at several locations to the spread of SARS in that province.
“These changes are completely contrary to what experts, like the Canadian Nursing Advisory Committee, have said we need to deal with the nursing shortage and issues like quality of care and medical errors,” Heather Smith notes.
Salary increases are not an issue, and the mediator’s recommendations of a 3.5% increase in year one, and a three percent increase in year two are very close to what both the nurses and the health employers proposed.
“Beattie has implied nurses should accept these giant steps backward or face the threat of a government imposed contract. Nurses cannot be swayed by these kinds of threats when the heart of our work – providing safe nursing care, could be compromised.”
- 30 -
BACKGROUNDER
Rollbacks included in the mediator’s recommendations:
Unrestricted Movement of Nurses: For decades, every nurse and every Employer operated on the basis that a nurse’s position was attached to a unit/office and a work site. When nurses go to work, they know which unit and which building or office they report to. In the mediator’s recommendation, the Employer could change these assignments at will.
Not only could an Employer send a nurse to different units within the same building, but the Employer could send a nurse to work anywhere in a health Region—temporarily or permanently. Despite a proposed 50 kilometre limit to the range of the assignment, other recommendations sidestep this limit, giving the Employers massive powers to assign nurses to work anywhere, anytime, against their will. This recommendation shows complete contempt and disregard for nursing and for each individual nurse. It also sets labour relations back at least forty years and destroys all efforts at retention and recruitment of nurses.
Designated Days of Rest: In the last contract, providing part-time nurses with the assurance of guaranteed time for their families was such a priority, the Employers agreed to increasing the number of designated days of rest. These days were to provide some protection for nurses who, despite having part-time assignments, would often be called weekly to work extra shifts because of staffing shortages. In line with the Employers’ current demands, the mediator has recommended the abolishment of these designated days of rest. Part-time nurses now risk being forced to work more than full-time hours, with no overtime and no ability to plan time for their families – virtually every day could be assigned by the Employer. Removing designated days of rest not only puts the largest group of nurses at risk (more than a third of
all nurses work part time), but provides no incentive to hire more full time nurses – something the health system desperately needs.
Permanent Evening and Night Shifts: The mediator has agreed with the Employers’ demand for the power to unilaterally and arbitrarily assign nurses to permanent evening or night shifts. The potential for coercion threatens to destroy staff morale and retention. The ability of Employers to make a nurse work permanent evenings and nights at any time destroys any confidence in advance scheduling (to organize childcare, for example) and will drive nurses out of the profession.
Minimum Staffing and Nurse-to-Patient Ratios: UNA members were very vocal about wanting major improvements to the Collective Agreement that would guarantee safe patient care. As part of this priority, UNA wanted to achieve contract language that would protect safe nurse-to-patient ratios. The Employers and the mediator have disagreed with such ratios and have dismissed the notion entirely.
Nurse in Charge: Not only did the Employers dismiss the nurse-to-patient ratio provisions, they also demanded that the minimal requirement of a nurse in charge of a ward or unit at all times be weakened by removing any charge provisions for ‘patient/resident/client care delivered in a home, clinic, school, or office’.
Salary is not an issue in this round of bargaining. UNA has proposed 3% or the cost of living (whichever is greater) in each of two years. The mediator has recommended 3.5% in year one, 3% in year two and cost of living in year three. However, these modest increases are overshadowed by the potential loss of income that will result from recommended changes to shift premiums, overtime and holiday pay and rising travel costs, including insurance and mileage, that Employers refuse to cover.
| 
