Health-care workers who are not eligible for Ontario’s pandemic pay bump are speaking out against the province.
Hospital workers in various regulated health-care professions say they’re being left out despite facing an increased risk of infection and contributing towards the recovery of COVID-19 patients. Employees have been fighting for the extra compensation following its announcement in April.
“It’s demoralizing,” said Sara Labelle, a medical laboratory technologist at Lakeridge Health and chair of the hospital professionals division for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
“People feel like they don’t want to come into work.”
According to Labelle, more than 1,000 other workers in Durham have been excluded from receiving extra compensation from the province, despite being part of the ongoing battle against COVID-19.
“It takes a village to get everyone out the front door healthy and able to go home,” said Leanne Weatherill, a registered pharmacy technician at Lakeridge Health and president of OPSEU Local 348.
According to the province, eligible workers will receive an extra $4 per hour. Those who work more than 100 hours per month will also get a lump sum of $250.
According to OPSEU, there are more than 25,000 regulated health professionals across the province excluded from the bonus. Among them: pharmaceutical technicians, physiotherapists and speech pathologists.
“We’re doing the diagnostics, we’re doing the therapeutics,” said Labelle. “We’re doing all of the work that is done in order help make a patient better.”
in B.C, allied health professionals, community health workers and patient care support workers are all eligible for pandemic pay.
In a statement, Lakeridge Health told Global News they are “…disappointed by the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) decision not to extend this benefit to other team members who provide patient care and keep our organization safe.”
The province also commented, saying, “Unfortunately, there is a limit to the amount of funding provided by the federal government through our shared agreement and we are not able to expand the pandemic pay program beyond the over 375,000 employees already deemed eligible.”
As for health-care professionals like Labelle, she says it isn’t fair how workers are being treated.
“There should not be a two-tiered class of workers that are being valued by the province as health-care heroes.”
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