The province has intervened in the labour dispute between seniors care provider Extendicare and its employees, rendering any strike or lockout action illegal for the next six weeks.
Extendicare workers had been planning to go on strike Monday morning (July 8) at 11 a.m. With the government’s establishment of a one-person Disputes Inquiry Board (DIB) consisting of arbitrator Lyle Kanee, that is no longer possible.
“I am deeply concerned that a labour disruption would affect health and safety of the residents of these facilities. Their well-being is our primary concern,” said Alberta Human Services Minister Dave Hancock in a press release last Friday.
The 1,289 Extendicare workers are members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) and deal with 1,000 seniors care beds. Sixty-eight of those workers are at Athabasca’s Extendicare worksite.
“The DIB gives a 45-day window to reach a collective agreement with the help of a third party. If an agreement is not reached during that time, a settlement is recommended,” AUPE explained in a press release of its own on Friday. “Members can then vote to accept or reject the recommendations.”
Prior to the announcement of the DIB, a strong strike mandate had been expressed by all eight Extendicare sites, some of which voted 100 per cent in favour of strike action.
Athabasca was one of the sites where the vote to take strike action was unanimous.
Instead of going on strike Monday, the AUPE wrote Health Minister Fred Horne to request an independent review of the private sector’s use of public dollars in seniors care in Alberta. The union hopes the minister will address what it sees as chronic disputes in private seniors care.
“Staff at Extendicare are serious about standing up for quality care. Quality care requires stability of employment,” according to AUPE negotiator Kevin Davediuk. “That stability comes from a fair collective agreement that is consistent with Alberta’s seniors care labour market.”
When a strike seemed imminent, Colleen Lycar, Extendicare’s regional director for northern Alberta, had stated that “contingency plans” had been worked on “for quite a period of time.”
But the AUPE said the creation of a DIB sends a different message.
“The government tends to only intervene in these (disputes) if there’s an operational problem or risk … we assumed that (Extendicare) had a plan, but we’re assuming the government discovered they didn’t,” said Davediuk.
While Extendicare has repeatedly declined to comment on negotiations with its workers, it has maintained that quality of care for residents is its priority.
The union said Extendicare repeatedly pulled out of mediation sessions last week. AUPE president Guy Smith said this “added pressure to an already volatile labour dispute.”
Extendicare is allegedly “pushing net earnings rollbacks, which means staff take-home pay would go backward; drastic reductions in sick time, meaning staff would be forced to work sick, which is hazardous for them and elderly residents; and the lowest number of named holidays in any health-care agreement in Alberta,” according to an earlier AUPE release.
Smith said Extendicare is leading AUPE members down a path to “the lowest legal standard in Alberta.”
The AUPE president alleged Extendicare would like to remove overtime pay for name holidays (such as Christmas Day, Canada Day and New Year’s Day).
Smith characterized Extendicare employees as “a bunch of wonderful, dedicated workers, mostly women, part-time workers … a lot of them are new Canadians.”
Davediuk said AUPE will continue to “engage in the process,” but if Extendicare continues to not address the union’s quality care concerns, AUPE will willingly serve strike notice again.
