Union for Group Health workers raises alarm over possible layoffs

As the Group Health Centre prepares to de-roster over 10,000 of its patients, the union representing hundreds of employees there is concerned there will be layoffs.

CUPE Local 894 represents a total of 221 health care workers and clerical support team members at Group Health Centre. That organization recently announced it would be de-rostering 10,176 patients on May 31 due to a shortage of primary care providers.

"The Union has been questioning layoffs since 2023, but the employer has not been able to assure the Union that there will be no layoffs,” said a news release from CUPE Local 894.

Like many public sector employees affected by Ontario’s Bill 124, workers represented by the union were capped to a maximum one per cent pay increase every year over a three year period. In February, the government repealed the law after losing a court case and appeal filed by labour organizations. 

Local 894 said its workers desperately need an equitable wage increase that reflects the cost of living and high inflation rates and the GHC has struggled with keeping staff for years.

“We need to see a wage adjustment that is on par with the wage increases we’re seeing in the hospital sector in Ontario if the Group Health Centre wants to retain staff,” said Tracy Fabbricino, president of Local 894, in a news release. “The last thing this centre needs is to lose more staff and, if we don’t get a real wage increase, that’s exactly what is going to happen.”

"Our workforce is overworked, stressed, and burned out. We don’t want to leave, but if our members can’t afford to pay their bills, they’ll have to,” she added.

The union and GHC management spent five days in labour negotiations last week and will resume talks on April 11.

The GHC is seeking $300,000 in one-time funding from the Ministry of Health to provide relief from Bill 124 to cover wage increases, with an additional $100,000 in ongoing funding requested.

In an interview earlier this week, GHC communications manager Giordan Zin noted just about every public sector entity across Ontario is seeking similar relief.

Asked on Friday about the possibility of layoffs, Zin said he is unable to comment on the specifics of ongoing negotiations.

"Our focus remains on reaching a fair and sustainable resolution that supports our workforce while maintaining the high-quality healthcare services our community relies on," he said.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles and the party’s Health critic France Gelinas were in Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday and touched on the subject of Bill 124 in an interview with SooToday. 

Stiles said for years the NDP has been trying to get the provincial government to rethink Bill 124.

"We told them this is never going to hold up in court. They refused to listen, they went ahead with freezing those wages for those health care workers and education workers and the problem is that now they're gonna have to pay,” she said.

The problem, said Stiles, is many of those workers left the province as a result of the one per cent pay freezes.

Fabbricino said in the news release that Local 894 is also concerned for the patients about to be orphaned by GHC.

"These patients will have to access community resources like the Sault Area Hospital Emergency Room or walk in clinics that are already overburdened by the healthcare system, which isn’t going to provide them with the consistent care they need,” she said.

GHC announced in January that 10,000 patients will be removed from its roster in response to a shortage of primary care providers.