REGINA -- Provincial health regions say about 75 per cent of the full-time jobs
filled by workers in three provider unions should be designated “essential”
under the Saskatchewan Party government’s controversial new law.
Fifty per cent of the full-time equivalent positions in a fourth union should
also be deemed essential, said the Saskatchewan Association of Health
Organizations, the body that bargains on behalf of the health regions.
SAHO revealed the numbers Wednesday morning at a news conference, shortly after
unions were handed draft proposals of essential services agreements outlining
which job classifications — and the names of specific employees — the regions
think should remain on the job in the event of a strike.
“The employers have taken a serious and reasonable look at the number of
positions that would be required to provide appropriate patient care and comply
with the legislation,” said SAHO president and chief executive Susan Antosh.
But some union leaders, just beginning to review the detailed documents, said
the news only furthers concerns that the ability to hold an effective strike has
been lost.
“It erodes the need for the employer to put a decent offer on the table,” said
Bob Bymoen, president of the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’
Union.
“The employer has money, the workers have labour. What they’ve done through this
legislation — the government has — is taken away the ability for employers to
withdraw their services.”
Antosh said the right to strike remains, insisting even a small number of
workers taking job action can be a big service disruption. But based on the
experience of other jurisdictions, future job action might last longer, she
said.
“That’s a very general statement but it is possible that job disruption or job
action may in fact be longer,” said Antosh, who called the essential services
law a “rebalancing” aimed at preventing danger to life, health and safety.
The contracts of workers represented by SGEU, Canadian Union of Public Employees
and Service Employees International, which bargain together on wages, expired a
year ago.
The three unions represent 25,000 people, who fill the equivalent of about
17,500 full-time jobs, including licensed practical nurses and special care
aides. The regions are proposing that all but 26 per cent of the
full-time-equivalent spots are essential under the legislation.
Some job classifications aren’t listed as essential at all, or are on the list
with “zero” employees listed as being required, SAHO said. However, if a strike
were to drag on, the number could be increased from zero and workers could be
added to the essential category.
The Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan, whose members include emergency
medical technicians and pharmacists, has about 2,200 full-time equivalent
positions, half of which the regions propose are essential. The HSAS contract
expires next month.
The unions will be able to discuss the names of “essential” workers that regions
have put forward. But Antosh added that employers have “taken a lot of their
wiggle room out.”
