The employer, Crothall Services Canada Inc., came back to the table last week with a substantially improved contract that proved satisfactory to the majority of the workers, says Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) National Rep. Kathy MacLeod. CUPE represents 28 janitorial staff at the hospital who are employed by the private contractor.
The employees had been seeking the same wage and benefit package received by other janitorial employees elsewhere in the hospital. MacLeod says that while the contract falls short of wage parity, the employer made significant improvements to a number of other areas, such as holidays and benefits, and offered a substantial signing bonus as well as a modest wage increase.
Ideally we would expect that health care employees working anywhere in the system would be treated the same, whether the service is contracted out or not, says MacLeod. In this case the employees felt the gains they made in non-monetary areas were satisfactory enough to compensate for a lesser wage package this time around.
For more information please call Kathy MacLeod at 455-4180 or 445-4116.