Skip to main content

Over the past four years, Sheila Niehaus has been fired from her position as a care aide at the Nanaimo Seniors Village three times. Each time, she was rehired to do the same job at the same place, but by a different company - and for a lower wage. It's disruptive, but Ms. Niehaus put up with it because she loved her work.

"My first job was at Nanaimo Seniors Village, and I'm attached to these residents. I haven't had grandparents for 25 years; these are my grandparents, every one of the 175 of them," she said.

But on May 9, she and the 167 other care aides at the Nanaimo facility were once again handed a pink slip. It said they would be out of work on Sept. 5, and this time, the 44-year-old single mother of two decided she can't afford to go back.

"I'm very upset that I have to leave my job. I put four years of my life into this company and into these residents and it's hard. It's very hard."

The Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act, more commonly referred to as Bill 29, which was passed in 2002, allows a health-sector employer to contract out services previously done by unionized employees.

This means that health-care workers whose contracts are terminated don't have rights that other workers in the province have under the B.C. Labour Code, which guarantees union workers' jobs under a new contract.

Ms. Niehaus started at $20.74 an hour. She now makes $17.90 an hour, while less-experienced care aides at the facility make $16.85. The last time all of the staff were fired, in 2004, all but nine were rehired by Caresource, the new company that contracted to do staffing.

Two months before the latest round of firings, the health aides at the Nanaimo Seniors Village had reached their first collective agreement with Caresource since forming under the Hospital Employees Union. The contract guaranteed a 3.4-per-cent wage increase.

"In my mind, there was a lot of work that was put into it and it was a very thoughtful process and the resulting document was very thoughtful as well," said Susan Scott Gabe, director of operations with Caresource.

However, Retirement Concepts, the company that owns Nanaimo Seniors Village, ended its association with the contractor, in part because the collective agreement would have been too expensive.

"It was based on the fact that Caresource has been unable to provide the required level of service within acceptable financial parameters," said Tony Baena, vice-president of operations of Retirement Concepts.

As a result, Mr. Baena said, the contract with Caresource ended on May 7. The health aides were told on May 9 they would be let go in September.

Mr. Baena said Retirement Concepts supports the rights of workers to belong to unions.

"We have other sites where we have reached agreements with organized labour, including the HEU, and so it is not a matter of us not believing that workers have a right to be represented by a third party."

Ron Cantelon, the Liberal MLA for Nanaimo-Parksville, said he thinks that the situation at Nanaimo Seniors Village is simply a labour situation where the contractor didn't meet the requirements of the facility.

However, Judy Darcy, HEU secretary-business manager, said that if Bill 29 had never been passed, the health aides in Nanaimo wouldn't be out of a job just because Caresource's contract was ended.

"They would have successorship, and that means there would be stability of care for the seniors at Nanaimo Seniors Village," Ms. Darcy said.

Last week, after 450 health aides in the lower mainland were let go in a similar situation, NDP seniors issues critic Katrine Conroy and health critic Adrian Dix called for Bill 29 to be repealed.

"I think at a time when we're trying to attract people to the sector, for companies with the backing of the government to act in this way is not just disgraceful, because it is, but it's counterproductive to the whole health-care system," Mr. Dix said in an interview last week.

Mr. Baena said Retirement Concepts has chosen a new contractor for Nanaimo Seniors Village.

Everyone seems to agree that the seniors at the facility could suffer the most. Mr. Baena said the company had a meeting with the residents and their families to explain the staffing situation. He also said that Retirement Concepts is confident the new contractor will be able to provide a sufficient number of qualified staff.

But residents and staff remain skeptical.

"There's a lot of people with Alzheimer's and dementia and these girls that are in there treat them as part of the family and all of a sudden, boom, they're gone, and they don't realize what happened to them," said Ken Gregory, a 78-year-old resident of the facility.

Ms. Niehaus said she worries about the future of the seniors at the facility.

"It's scary for us as care aides because we love these people and very soon I don't know who will be looking after them."

Interact with The Globe