Hundreds of nurses with Interior Health participated in a rally in Penticton today (Tuesday) to highlight their concerns and priorities in preparation for collective bargaining and contract renegotiations.
The rally saw over 300 Interior Health nurses picketing outside Penticton’s South Okanagan Events Centre as part of a two-day regional bargaining conference organized by BC Nurses’ Union President Adrienne Gear.
This is the first of six regional conferences to be hosted by Gear between now and February, as the Union prepares to head back to the bargaining table over a new collective agreement, with the current one set to expire in March 2025.
Health, safety, respect, and benefits are the key topics to emerge from Monday and Tuesday’s discussions, with Gear stating she has heard “loud and clear” that IH nurses are tired of the health authority’s staffing strategy, proposed benefit cuts, and non-conventional work settings.
Staffing Model and Respect
According to Gear, Interior Health employs a redeployment and reassignment staffing strategy, which nurses are “frankly just getting really tired of.”
“Of course, nurses can care for many different types of patients. However, you sign on to an area that you’re passionate about. If you wanted to be an emergency room nurse, you would be an emergency room nurse, but to be constantly sent to areas where you’re not oriented and where you don’t feel you have all the competencies to work there is extremely stressful.”
There have also been significant pay issues expressed by nurses who commit to picking up extra shifts.
“Nurses committing to pick up extra shifts, or even sometimes not committing but feeling like there’s no one else to come in, find themselves unable to leave, and then the employer doesn’t pay them properly. When you send a pay inquiry, they often don’t even bother responding. Nurses are indicating that pay errors are being left unaddressed, which feels really disrespectful after they’ve picked up extra shifts.”
Gear adds that Interior Health’s proposed cuts to it’s benefits package is unacceptable, as nurses have made it clear how physically and emotionally demanding their roles are.
“Nurses need to have accessible benefits. One issue that has come up is the various employer family assistance programs that are offered; they are just woefully inadequate. Nurses want to have better access to just-in-time support when they need it.”
Rural Concerns
Recruitment and retention are major concerns for nurses working in rural and remote communities, according to Gear, who states that nurses in these settings feel added pressures that lead to moral distress.
“When you, as the nurse, want to take your vacation, or God forbid call in sick, but you know that the emergency room will close, it adds a lot of pressure. There’s a severe staffing challenge everywhere, but the impact on remote areas is much more significant.”
A solution to this involves a nurse-to-patient ratio model, which has been approved by the Ministry of Health but has yet to be implemented in all settings.
The nurses’ union played a key role in negotiations to develop this model, with Gear stating that the union and government have agreed on ratios for acute care. They are now focusing on establishing ratios for rural and remote centres, which Gear says would improve working conditions and aid in recruitment and retention.
Next Steps
Once the regional conferences are complete, nurses from across the province will select their own delegates to go to the provincial bargaining table at the end of February.
The delegates will be presented with data gathered through the bargaining conferences and a bargaining survey, which will determine key priorities and which issues they are willing to take job action over, if necessary.
“Our plan is to be very prepared so that when it is time to sit down with the employer, we will be in good shape to do so,” said Gear.
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