Home / World / English News / ‘We’re seeing higher vacancy rates’: Health workers union says Manitoba needs to do more – Winnipeg

‘We’re seeing higher vacancy rates’: Health workers union says Manitoba needs to do more – Winnipeg

The union representing Manitoba health-care employees says the province needs to pick up the pace and deliver on its election promises.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU) released an in-depth report Thursday, which details some of the vacancy issues facing rural Manitoba in a health-care system that continues to struggle.

MGEU president Kyle Ross said some health regions, like Prairie Mountain, are dealing with a vacancy rate close to 50 per cent in staffing areas other than nurses and doctors — including health-care aides and home care staff.

“Where there’s less opportunities … we’re seeing higher vacancy rates because the jobs aren’t competitive anymore,” Ross said at a press conference Thursday.

“These people are not choosing health care, and we need to make health care an employer of choice if we want to staff these jobs up and have a good health system.”

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The union outlined 10 recommendations in its report, From Crisis to Stability – Fixing the Staffing Crisis in Manitoba’s Health Care System, which attributes the province’s current health-care crisis to cuts and privatization under the previous provincial government, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and an aging population.


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The recommendations include a comprehensive recruitment strategy for all positions, phasing out private for-profit recruitment agencies, improving workplace health and safety, and ending system-wide restructuring.

The MGEU said recruitment and retention issues are at the root of the challenges in the health-care system, and relying on private agencies to fill gaps is costly and doesn’t fix the long-term problem.

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Earlier this year, the province laid out aggressive plans to bolster the number of nurses and doctors in Manitoba, but Ross said that needs to expand to other professions as well.

“This government made an election commitment to fix health care. To keep their promise, they must invest in the entire health-care team,” Ross said.

Health, seniors, and long-term care minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province is, in many ways, already behind what the MGEU has put forth.

“I’m happy to see that many of the recommendations, if not all of them, are aligned with our government’s priorities,” Asagwara said, noting “staffing up the health care system” is one of those priorities.

During a time of bargaining and negotiations, the minister also said wage improvements could be on the table for health care staff.

“The previous PC government froze the wages of frontline health care workers for years,” Asagwara said. “Our government has come to the table to negotiate fairly with unions and to get agreements done.”

Strategies are also being developed to reduce dependency on private agency resources, the minister said.


Click to play video: 'Manitoba parents ‘helpless’ as toddler lacks public health care coverage'


Manitoba parents ‘helpless’ as toddler lacks public health care coverage


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