WALLACEBURG – Frustrations over working conditions, low pay and employee burnout prompted unionized workers at Community Living Wallaceburg to rally Wednesday in front of the agency.
Kim Therrien, president of Local 150 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said the agency has lost more than 100 workers since 2020, which is taking its toll on remaining staff.
“It’s really tough. We are constantly in overtime. We are being forced to stay (at work),” Therrien said. “We don’t have a family-life balance any more. We’re constantly working.”
She said staff care for the people they work with, which is why many have remained with the agency despite their concerns.
The agency provides accommodation, respite, community and employment supports for more than 450 people with intellectual disabilities and their families throughout Chatham-Kent.
“But it’s getting hard,” she added. “It’s really hard on our families and on us mentally, basically.”
The workers also have been without a contract for nearly a year, with their last deal expiring on Dec. 31, 2021.
Tracy More, an OPSEU negotiations supervisor, said there have been some good days of negotiations, but noted there are “some stalling points where we’re on opposite ends of the spectrum.”
She said those contested items include management’s wish to take away seniority, which is “a fundamental trade union principle and is a no-go for us.”
More said there is also the issue of overburdened employees being “forced stay at work.”
The agency has a policy that forces employees to stay at work if there isn’t another worker available to come in and take over their shift, she explained.
“You can imagine with the retention issue, you’re having people stay people stay and work 16- to 18-hour days.”
There are occasions when a staff member will actually bring a backpack with a change of clothes because they don’t know if they’ll be able to leave at the end of their eight-hour shift, Therrien said.
Community Living Wallaceburg executive director Deborah Hook acknowledged, after speaking to the agency’s director of operations, there have been times staff have been asked or required to work a double shift.
She added that second shift is most likely scheduled from midnight to morning.
When that happens, she said management will try to get the person coming in for the day shift to arrive earlier.
Hook added management “works really hard to try to mitigate that.”
When it comes to staffing shortages, Hook said the “recruitment challenges” faced by Community Living Wallaceburg are not “unique” to that agency.
“Employers in all industries, but particularly care sectors like ours, are experiencing extreme challenges,” she noted.
Therrien said there are thousands of hours of lieu time collectively banked by staff, but there is no actual time to use it or even take vacation.
Hook said the agency must have sufficient staffing to ensure around-the-clock support and care for the people they serve.
She added the agency has to restrict vacations, particularly during high-demand periods, which results in junior employees with little seniority not being approved at peak times.
Therrien said having more full-time staff would not only provide staff with a home life, but would help them “support the individuals effectively without being stressed out, without being burnt out.”
Hook said there are currently 26 vacancies at Community Living Wallaceburg, but stressed the agency is doing everything in its power to recruit and retain for these positions.
“In particular, we are prioritizing making new full-time roles to try to incentivize more workers to come to our agency.”
Hook said the agency knows the pandemic has been challenging and stressed the work of its employees is valued.
She added the agency took advantage of temporary pandemic-related exemptions from Bill 124 “to compensate our employees, including generous premiums for working in outbreaks, holidays, on-call, and summer weekends, gift cards, gift bags, prizes, meals and a host of other benefits.”
Hook said employees were allowed to carryover or be paid out for increased time that would have otherwise been lost under the terms of the contract.
“None of these enhancements were negotiated by the union,” she said “None of them were required by the government.”
Wages remain an issue for the union, which notes workers make an average of $21 to $22 an hour, with many part-timers having little or no benefits.
Hook said the agency is committed to negotiating an increase over and about the $3-an-hour hike to base wages from the Ontario government, despite the lack of new provincial funding.