Local health-care workers once again gathered in front of Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece’s Stratford office Tuesday morning to rally for the repeal of Bill 124 — Ontario’s Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act.
Local hospital and long-term care workers renewed their calls for the Ontario government to repeal legislation that caps public-sector salaries during a Tuesday morning rally in front of Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece’s Stratford office.
Organized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, the Stratford rally was one of many planned at Conservative MPP offices across Ontario this week to protest Bill 124, which many say prevents personal support workers, nurses and other health-care and public-sector workers from bargaining the true value of their work during a time of labor scarcity and rising inflation.
“Thousands of our members were redeployed to the most dangerous (COVID-19) outbreaks (over the past two years),” said Treena Hollingworth, president of CUPE 4727, which represents roughly 500 Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance employees. “They have worked without vacations for two years, they have worked around the clock and through weekends, and many are burnt out and on the edge.
“We’re here today because of this legislation, Bill 124. In addition to … real wage cuts, it also prevents them from bargaining for mental-health supports. … I am here today to tell the Ford government and its elected representatives – MPP Randy Pettapiece – who, on the one hand, lavish health-care workers with praise and call them heroines, and on the other hand, subject them to dangerous and stressful work and forbid them from bargaining for access to mental-health supports. … We will not stop demonstrating, rallying and picketing until the Ford government repeals Bill 124.”
As the cost of living in Ontario and across the country continues to rise, CUPE says the Ford government’s decision to cap annual wage increases to one per cent annually for the first three years of a new collective agreement has resulted in many Ontario health-care workers leaving jobs in long-term care and hospitals.
“I wish we were not here today in front of Mr. Pettapiece’s office asking his government to reconsider this legislation, which they passed in November 2019 (when) inflation was one per cent,” council president Michael Hurley said at Tuesday’s rally.
“But here we are now and inflation ended last year at 5.2 per cent and it’s already 6.1 per cent in Ontario,” he said. “That means, likely, that all of the health-care workers in Huron-Perth, in Guelph, in St. Marys, in Clinton, in Wingham and all across Ontario are going to see their real wages cut by 10 per cent in the first two years of their collective agreement. And a lot of people are suffering. Not just the ones suffering from long-term COVID. A lot of people are suffering from stress, from anxiety, from depression and from addiction because they carried a lot of additional (pressure) throughout this whole pandemic.”
First introduced in June 2019 and passed in November of that year, Bill 124 – the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act – was passed “to ensure that increases in public-sector compensation reflect the fiscal situation of the province, are consistent with the principles of responsible fiscal management and protect the sustainability of public services,” according to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website.
The act established different three-year moderation periods for represented and non-represented employees. During each period, salary increases are limited to one per cent annually unless an exemption is approved by the minister of finance.
Responding to the rally in front of his Stratford office Tuesday, Pettapiece told the Beacon Herald his government is grateful for Ontario’s nurses and all health-care workers.
“Nurses employed in health care, long-term care, social services and the correctional sector are among the 430,000 employees that have benefited from pandemic pay,” Pettapiece said. “Ontario’s temporary pandemic pay was the most generous in Canada.”
Pettapiece also pointed to the government’s $763-million investment in lump-sum retention bonuses of up to $5,000 per person, as well as an additional $342 million to hire 5,000 new registered nurses and registered practical nurses, and 8,000 new personal support workers.
“Bill 124 applies to more than one-million people working in Ontario’s public sector. This legislation is applied across the Ontario public service and the broader public sector, including employees in schools, colleges, universities, the provincial government, hospitals and provincial police,” he said
“I have met with local nurses and other health-care professionals from across the riding to discuss these issues. I understand their concerns. The province will continue to invest in our hospitals and professional health-care staff, including nurses.”
While Pettapeice did not attend the rally, Jo-Dee Burbach, the provincial NDP’s candidate for Perth-Wellington in the upcoming provincial election, spoke briefly about her party’s plans to scrap Bill 124 if elected.
“You don’t deliver world-class education, health care and other public services by cutting and squeezing the services of their staff,” she said. “Nurses and other health-care workers have been working flat out – we’ve heard that today – to keep people safe and healthy, and they deserve our respect and recognition. Ford has shown he doesn’t value the work of nurses and other health-care workers.
“He’s letting them fall further behind by suppressing wages while the cost of living skyrockets. Unionized employees have the right to bargain their contracts, including negotiating fair wages. Bill 124 is unconstitutional because it tramples on those rights.”