Representatives of CUPE 5430, Saskatchewan’s largest health care union, met with Greg Ottenbreit, Yorkton MLA and Minister for Rural and Remote Health on January 19 to discuss concerns with workload and chronic under-staffing.
The delegation submitted close to 1,500 postcards calling for the province to address workload by:
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Ensuring staff are replaced when sick or on leave;
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Improving shift schedules to reduce on-call work;
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Increasing funding for frontline staff;
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Having meaningful discussion with health care unions about staff, resources, recruitment, and retention (especially in rural Saskatchewan).
“Every day, members of CUPE 5430 experience challenges associated with heavy and increasing workload that impacts their ability to provide quality care,” said Pearl Blommaert, local vice-president. “We would like to thank Minister Ottenbreit for the meeting, and we are hopeful we will see some movement on this very important area.”
Pearl Blommaert, Donna Krawetz, Linda Vancuren, Nancy Black, Evelyn Stachura, Carmen Stadnyk and staff representative Dolores Douglas were at the meeting to represent the local.
CUPE 5430 is grateful to every member who signed a workload postcard and encourages members to report workload issues to their CUPE representative or regional office.