FREDERICTON –
A number of placing New Brunswick health-care sector workers have been turned away from their jobs hours after the province issued an emergency order sending them again to work, the union representing the civil servants mentioned Saturday.
Native presidents inside CUPE New Brunswick held a day press convention to debate the fallout after the provincial authorities introduced it was calling health-care workers again to work. That order got here on Friday, per week after 22,000 CUPE members throughout the province walked off the job in response to an ongoing labour dispute with the province.
CUPE Native 1252 President Norma Robinson advised reporters the back-to-work order appears to have triggered “chaos” inside the health-care system.
“It was not clear who was to report back to work and now this morning we’re getting studies that there are people who have been to not report back to work as a result of that is what they’re being advised on the door,” she mentioned, including that some members have been advised they have been nonetheless on strike scheduling.
The union is now calling on the federal government to clarify the parameters of the order, Robinson added.
The provincial authorities issued an emergency order forcing placing health-care employees to return on the job as of midnight in an try to assist stabilize the system that is been overburdened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a launch issued Friday, officers mentioned greater than 11,800 appointments, procedures and surgical procedures have been cancelled since Nov. 1 and the health-care system is coping with delays in processing laboratory check outcomes.
However Robinson mentioned anecdotes from health-care workers who’re nonetheless at the moment working inform a special story.
“We have had studies from folks on the within of the health-care amenities that it isn’t as dangerous as what was reported by the federal government,” she mentioned.
The province says the order covers all employees in CUPE 1252, who work instantly within the healthcare system, in addition to employees in CUPE 1190 and CUPE 1251 who work within the well being providers provide chain and laundry and linen providers. It doesn’t pertain to the remainder of the CUPE members who went on strike final week, a bunch that features workers within the corrections and schooling sectors amongst others.
The province issued a information launch in a while Friday, saying anybody who fails to report back to work dangers being fined between $480 and $20,400 per day. CUPE itself has been threatened with a minimal positive of $100,000 for every day {that a} employee would not adjust to the order.
Steve Drost, president of CUPE New Brunswick, mentioned the federal government has not been in touch with the union for the reason that order was enacted.
Salaries have been the central problem on the coronary heart of the continuing labour dispute.
The province is providing a wage enhance of two per cent per 12 months for 5 years, in addition to a 25-cent-per-hour enhance annually. It additionally proposed pension modifications for 2 locals.
The union, nonetheless, mentioned it countered with a pay elevate of two per cent per 12 months over 5 years, in addition to an additional 25-cent-per-hour elevate for the primary three years, adopted by a 50-cent enhance per hour within the last two years. The counter-proposal additionally rejected the possible pension modifications.
Drost known as the order and the federal government’s supply “outrageous.”
“It is merely a software to intervene with these members authorized rights and for use as punishment in opposition to these employees as a result of they perceive their worth they usually’ve lastly determined to face up,” he mentioned.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Nov. 6, 2021.
