Yukon union criticizes hospital corporation’s spending on agency staff

A union in Yukon is slamming a hospital’s use of agency workers, claiming that the actions made by the employer have made staff feel “disposable”.

Over the last four years, the Yukon Hospital Corporation has spent at least $20 million on agency staff to fill health-care jobs in the territory, claimed Justin Lemphers, Yukon Employees' Union president.

The union acquired the data via an access to information request, and said that the figure is disturbing, reported CBC.

"They see a workforce that's treated as though it's disposable," said Lemphers in the report.

Lemphers also said that the health-care workers hired through agencies are getting paid between $60 to $120 an hour, while unionized employees like lab technicians and X-Ray technicians get $47 an hour at most. He noted that it’s not clear how much money goes directly to agency employees and how much the agency gets.

Previously, two provincial governments were criticized for the way they were spending funding for healthcare workers.

"You also have less of a community connection," Lemphers said in the CBC report. "They may not even understand how the workplace functions, and may need more support. And if that's constantly happening, then your capacity as a caregiver is diminished because you're constantly educating someone else.

"That could really harm relationships with people that have lost trust in medical systems over generations," he added.

Agency staff needed so ‘essential services remain uninterrupted’

However, Jessica Apolloni, a spokesperson for the Yukon Hospital Corporation, claimed that tapping the services of agencies to fill job openings is important to keep the hospital operating through labour shortage.

"It's really important that we ensure that essential services remain uninterrupted,” she said in the CBC report.

"While agency staffing is not ideal, it is a necessary measure to ensure that we can continue to meet the needs of our community especially when staffing options are limited," she said.

However, she did say that agency rates are higher, but they also include costs to the agency that don't go directly to the workers. 

Apolloni also noted that agency health-care workers do not get benefits, like a pension and education support, that unionized employees get. 

Previously, a health-care worker contradicted the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s (SHA) claim that it had addressed all pay issues in its relaunched payroll system.