THUNDER BAY — Nurses and caregivers from Bayshore Home Care Solutions held a rally Thursday afternoon, claiming they haven't been able to negotiate a new contracts despite being unionized in November.
Kathleen Moore, president of OPSEU SEFPO Local 745, claims nurses, personal support workers, and caregivers see a only small fraction of the revenue Bayshore brings in per employee.
However, she says it's difficult to negotiate a fair deal when they don't know how much Bayshore is actually making.
There are around 188 employees at Bayshore, with 30 of them being nurses and the rest being home support.
“It's very difficult when the government of Ontario makes contracts with private companies to provide health care in the community, and we're not allowed to even know how much Bayshore is making on our behalf,” says Moore.
“And that's very, very difficult for us because how do we sit down at the table and negotiate a deal when we have no idea how much money they're getting paid. I believe that the Ontario government or Bayshore Homecare Solutions should provide that information to us.”
Bayshore Homecare Solutions is a for-profit organization that provides home and community healthcare services. They are a contracted health care provider for government-funded services, including a bundled and integrated service delivery models for a wide variety of services such as palliative care, elderly care, and personal support. They also have a fee-for-service model.
Moore says that because Bayshore is a proprietary entity, they will not provide the union with the information they need to negotiate a fair wage for their members.
“We're not allowed to get any information on how much of our government's tax dollars, our tax dollars, are being allocated to Bayshore company and to the people that make money off of us instead of that money going to healthcare,” says Moore.
“I think as taxpayers we deserve to know how much of our money that we pay towards health care in the community goes to a company and how much actually goes to care.”
Moore says healthcare workers working in the for-profit sector make $10 to $20 less than those working in the public sector. The union is demanding standardized pay across the board.
“If the government pays a nurse at the hospital $40 an hour, well then, they should be paying a nurse in the community $40 an hour. If they're paying a personal support worker $25 or $28 an hour in long-term care, then they should be getting paid,” says Moore.
Moore says thousands of homecare visits are missed due to staffing shortages because of unfair wages. She says patients can be seen by upwards of 15 care workers in a week.
“They deserve to know that when they're having a home support, whether it's for respite, when they've been taking care of their loved one for 24 hours a day, that they have a respite worker that's coming, not thinking at the last minute that Bayshore is going to cancel that visit with no other explanation but there's just nobody available,” says Moore.
“People in our community, and especially our elderly community and especially our indigenous community, they're left to fend for themselves, and that is not right. Everybody deserves care, and everybody who works to give care deserves to be treated fairly.”
Newswatch reached out to Bayshore Homecare Solution. A spokesperson was not available to provide a comment about the rally.
