162 employees have been terminated from a Nanaimo nursing home due to what the operator is calling “insufficient funding” from the Island Health Authority.
Global News obtained an internal memo to staff dated April 2 that reads as follows:
“On April 1, 2014 we had no choice but to terminate 122 valued full and part-time, and 40 casual employees. Future employment opportunities will be offered however under significantly reduced compensation,” reads the memo from Good Samaritan Society President and CEO Shawn Terlson.
Terlson says that they are offering to re-hire employees with a 3.5 per cent reduction in salary and a 5 per cent reduction in benefits.
He lays the blame squarely at the Island Health Authority.
“The reason is chronic under-funding over a six year period from Island Health,” says Terlson. “We went into a 2008 contract with them when they asked providers to build beds for them, and from the original budget we put in place six years ago, there’s been virtually no increases whatsoever in funding.”
“In our original proposal, that in order to remain competitive on the Island in health care jobs – that we would be following whatever the collective agreement increases were over the last six years. This has amounted to 19 per cent increase in overall direct care costs, but no increase in funding.”
A publicly-available news release from the Good Samaritan Society says the funding model used by the Island Health Authority “is not aligned with the market demands for bedside health care workers and is forcing operators into a cycle of either: terminating all site employees, and offering future employment opportunities at significantly reduced compensation packages; or contracting out the care and services currently provided by the trained employees who are familiar with the care needs of the residents.”
The society says that over the past six years they have been contracted by Island Health, they have lost more than $3 million.
The Wexford Creek nursing home in Nanaimo is operated by the Good Samaritan Society, an Edmonton-based not-for-profit with over 54 sites.
The employees will work their final day at the facility on September 25, 2014.
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