The union representing many of Ontario's front-line health workers wants any talk of retention bonuses for nurses to include the thousands of other health-care professionals in Ontario who are also working on the front lines.
OPSEU/SEFPO wants to meet with the province to discuss the terms of the recently announced $5,000 retention bonus being offered to nurses who are members of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA). One of the reasons for the bonus is to address the issue of nurses leaving their careers as a result of pandemic burnout.
It was last week that ONA president Cathryn Hoy revealed she had met with Premier Doug Ford and had negotiated a good-faith retention bonus for all front-line nurses in publicly-funded facilities.
“The retention bonus negotiated today is for a lump-sum, $5,000 payment and the Premier indicated that this will go to the Treasury Board as early as next week for approval and further details on implementation," said Hoy.
That has prompted the OPSEU/SEFPO union to ask who exactly will qualify for the bonus; would it be ONA members only or would it apply to other workers in health care?
OPSEU/SEFPO First Vice-President/Treasurer Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida said he is hoping that any bonus would be inclusive to other health-care professionals.
“The devil is in the details,” said Almeida in a news release.
“I hope Mr. Ford will not lose sight of the fact that in addition to nurses, the health-care system relies on tens of thousands of professionals in other areas to keep running – they shouldn’t be left out.”
He added that OPSEU/SEFPO also represents nurses in the Ontario Corrections Division who are significantly underpaid. Almida said they deserve not only a retention bonus but an exemption from Bill 124 so their wages can be raised.
Sara Labelle, chair of OPSEU/SEFPO's Hospital Professionals Division, said she is happy to see that the government is recognizing the difficulty in finding nurses but notes there are other job classifications that are facing staff shortages.
"We are seeing staff shortages in labs, in pharmacies, in respiratory therapy, in radiation technology and many other professions," said Labelle. "We need a well-thought-out strategy to address shortages in all health care professions and we'd like to speak to the Premier about it."
