Ontario hospital professionals going to arbitration

OPSEU frustrated at lack of progress with government negotiators whose hands have been tied by the Liberal government at Queen's Park.

Toronto (25 Feb. 2009) - An arbitrator will decide the wages, benefits, and working conditions for more than 7,000 health care professionals at 40 Ontario hospitals.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) and the participating hospitals, represented by the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), were unable to reach an agreement at the bargaining table.

"Ontarians who are counting on faster results and shorter wait times will discover these goals are in jeopardy because long-standing problems in attraction and retention of hospital professionals are not being addressed,” says Yves Shank, chair of OPSEU’s bargaining team. “The hospital’s own research confirms this.”

The union expressed its frustration over the lack of progress with an employer whose hands were tied by Queen’s Park in this round of bargaining.

The OHA came to the table offering much less than was offered during recent agreements with the province's doctors and nurses. The OHA also failed to prove the job security required to retain much-needed professionals.

Hospital professionals provide diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative services. They include the medical laboratory technologists and medical radiation technologists who perform tests that doctors need to diagnose and treat.

They also encompass the pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who ensure that the right medications in the proper dosages are being administered, and they include physiotherapists, dietitians, occupational therapists, social workers and other treatment and rehabilitation professionals who ensure that patients are well enough to be sent home.

“The Ontario government should be working to ensure that the hospitals’ budget balancing exercises do not cut back on these highly trained, essential members of the hospital health care team,” says Patty Rout, OPSEU first vice-president. "These are, after all, some of the highly-trained knowledge workers that the government is pegging its economic recovery on.”

The OHA's 2007 Labour Market Survey shows that after nurses, medical laboratory technologists are the largest occupation for which hospitals expect a growth in staffing needs. Dietitians, occupational therapists, respiratory technologists and pharmacy technicians are also on the OHA’s top 10 list.

The OHA offered a mere 2% to cover wages, benefits and working conditions. The government and the province’s doctors reached a settlement in September 2008 with increases and attraction bonuses ranging from 3% to 7% a year over four years, depending on the specialty.

Ontario’s hospitals and nurses reached a settlement last spring that will increase nurses’ wages by 3% this year and another 3% next year. The nurses’ settlement also included significant working conditions and benefit improvements. NUPGE