Dear CUPE Ontario Health atHome members,
As we enter into October, we wanted to give you an important Fall update on all things CUPE Ontario Health at Home.
Local leaders have reported that many members are concerned about the employer’s return to work policy and expectation to return to the office three days a week starting in October. Members have a number of concerns including the impact on childcare and flexibility, health and safety concerns about being back in the office while we are still experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on retention and more.
There are reports managers of a few Ontario Health atHome sites are not being asked to come back into the office or held to the same standards. Please advise CUPE of such examples. At the very least, managers should be held to the same standard.
Take Action!
Together you and your local union can raise these issues with management directly. Let them know you are unhappy with this change. Put collective pressure on your employer to consider flexible alternatives and ultimately, to convey to central Ontario Health atHome management that the return to the office policy is negatively affecting morale and retention, which affects the important services that CUPE members provide in communities.
Local leadership can put the return to work policy on the agenda for labour management meetings and invite members to attend to provide examples of the negative impact of the policy on members and morale and take action collectively to put pressure on managements.
Unfortunately, many collective agreements in this sector do not have strong work from home language. That said, your local executives are reviewing your collective agreements with CUPE National staff and are exploring all options that may be applicable, including analyzing whether the employer’s return to office policy is in compliance with the legal test outlined in the KVP decision outlined below.
Last but certainly not least, we are launching a survey of the CUPE Ontario Health atHome members on a range of issues including the employer’s return to the office policy. The information collected from the survey will be shared with locals and used to collectively advocate for better working conditions. Please be sure to complete the survey and encourage your co-workers to do likewise.
What’s the KVP Award?
The KVP award is a legal case that set out a test for assessing the validity of an employer rule or policy in Canada. Unions have often relied on KVP to challenge employer policies. The KVP test requires that to be enforceable, a policy or rule unilaterally introduced by an employer must satisfy several conditions, including that the policy or rule “should [be] consistently enforced by the company from the time it was introduced.
We may be able to challenge Ontario Health atHome with the KVP test, particularly if there are examples in your workplace of the Employer not being consistent in rolling out their scheduling policies across all workplaces and to all staff.
If after reviewing the collective agreement and applying the KVP test you determine the employer has not met the test, your local union should consider filing a policy grievance.
Staffing & Workload Concerns
Staffing, workload, and recruitment & retention continue to be major issues at Ontario Health atHome.
Recently, some Care Coordinators were told that instead of servicing five patients per week, they are now expected to service eight patients per week. This is an enormous increase in workload that Care Coordinators are now expected to take on with no extra support. This is a symptom of recruitment and retention issues across Ontario Health atHome and the health care sector as a whole in Ontario. Underfunding of the important services that CUPE members at Ontario Health atHome provide is forcing members to take on the burden of extra work. This leads to burn out and exhaustion, and contributes to a cycle of retention issues, and in turn increases the workload for other Ontario Health atHome workers.
If you are a Care Coordinator or Team Assistant who has been asked to take on additional clients or additional work, please notify your local executive.
Stay tuned for the CUPE Ontario Health atHome restructuring survey!
In the near future all members should receive a survey with questions about the impact of the return to office plans, job security and staffing and workload issues. The goal is to have a comprehensive understanding of what all 1700 members are experiencing as a result of restructuring and underfunding of the services you provide. The information will be used to generate a report that will be shared with locals and used to advocate for improvements to funding for staffing and working conditions, laying the groundwork for your next round of bargaining with Ontario Health atHome.
PSLRTA Update
On October 3rd the employer asked representatives of each of the unions to attend a meeting. At the meeting the employer outlined its position with respect to bargaining unit configuration for the new employer Ontario Health atHome. The employer’s position is that there should be two province wide bargaining units – one for professional employees and the other for office, clerical and technical employees. Unfortunately, the employer also appears to be taking the position that several classifications that are unionized in some of the Collective Agreements should be excluded from the union. Examples of the CUPE positions that the employer is seeking to exclude include the Team Assistant Educator, Clinical Practice Lead, Contract Coordinator, Patient Care Contracts Advisor, Communications Advisor and others. This is an egregious position and CUPE will oppose the exclusion of any and all classifications that are unionized.
The Employer has indicated that they will file an application for PSLRTA by the end of next week. CUPE will respond to the Employer’s application and position and fight to oppose the exclusion of any positions from the union.
Your agreement and all the rights contained within it remain in place. Please continue to enforce your collective agreement with OH atHome and report any changes in staffing to your local representatives as soon as you can.
As always, we will continue to update you on as we learn new information about the merger.
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