SAHO reveals list of essential services

SAHO reveals list of essential services

Reported February 25, 2009

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.”