SASKATOON — More than two years have passed since the Service Employees International Union-West’s collective agreement with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations, and health-care workers like Kyla Kuffner-Cameron remain hopeful they will get a fair bargain sooner rather than later.
Kuffner-Cameron, who works as a licensed practical nurse at Saskatoon City Hospital, joined about 20 other SEIU-West members, including president Liza Zunti and vice-president Jason Monteith, and Saskatchewan NDP MLAs in an information picket on Tuesday outside the Saskatoon City Hospital.
She said she hopes their bosses will see the value of health-care workers like her. These workers have been making ends meet and are working under challenging conditions due to staffing and scheduling problems, as hospitals in the province, including Saskatoon, are overwhelmed with patients seeking medical care.
“We are more than just pots and pans during the [COVID-19] pandemic. We are living and breathing [people], and are short-staffed. It's getting dangerous. I'm surprised more people aren't leaving work in droves. Lots of people are retiring and not looking back and going to other fun jobs,” Kuffner-Cameron told SaskToday.
“Because of inflation, a lot of health-care workers are living paycheque to paycheque without a raise in sight. We are losing staff because there is no pay raise, and it seems our bosses don’t really want to retain senior nurses and staff.”
She added that it is better to work at either Staples or Costco, where the workplace environment is less stressful and people are paid proper wages. In contrast, Saskatoon City Hospital has always been busy due to being short-staffed, especially in the emergency department, where patients experience longer wait times than expected.
“They [emergency department] are only supposed to be open from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and a lot of times they are late because they have patients there that they can't send home or send to one of the other triage hospitals,” said Kuffner-Cameron.
Health-care crisis
Zunti, who represents over 13,000 health-care workers in Saskatchewan, said she wants to raise the alarm about a crisis caused by the provincial government’s Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) in the Cypress Health Region, which covers health-care facilities and programs in Swift Current and other communities in southern Saskatchewan.
She said that healthcare workers who are SEIU-West members — including laboratory and X-ray technicians, LPNs, continuing care assistants, food and laundry services, and maintenance staff — remain the backbone of the province’s health-care system. There are over 1,300 SEIU-West members who work in the Cypress region.
“This crisis is profoundly impacting them and the patients, clients, residents and communities that they serve. It's a crisis caused by something called AIMS, the Administrative Information Management System. [AIMS] is a new system for handling payroll and staff scheduling. The Saskatchewan Health Authority launched it in Cypress on Sept. 1,” said Zunti.
Zunti said the SHA introduced AIMS in 2022, but the project has caused problems since it has been chronically late, over budget, and plagued with errors and concerns. It also does not comply with the collective agreement, which legally requires the SHA to pay health-care workers in full and on time for all the hours they worked.
“The SHA is legally required to schedule our members for the shifts that they are willing, able and qualified to work. For dozens of our members in Cypress, this has not been happening because of AIMS,” said Zunti.
“Members are unable to pay their bills, unable to make ends meet, stressed out that they might lose their cars, even their homes. Patients in hospitals, residents in care facilities, and home care clients are not getting the care they need and deserve because AIMS is not scheduling enough staff.”
She added that the SHA has not provided a solution or remedy for the situation and only offered what they call a problem-solving mode, where members bring their concerns forward as a grievance or a payroll inquiry.
“The problem is that grievances take time. If I am getting paid in three days and I don't receive my pay, I don't have time to wait for a grievance process to fix this. It [AIMS] was rolled out in the former Saskatoon Health Region about a year and a half ago. And we are seeing the same problems in Cypress that we saw in the former Saskatoon Health Region,” Zunti said.
SHA response
In a statement the SHA said AIMS is "a collaborative project managed by 3sHealth in partnership with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and more than 100 affiliates and health system partners. Its purpose is to modernize and align administrative health system technology and processes by replacing more than 80 outdated human resource, finance, and supply chain systems across Saskatchewan.
"Within the SHA, teams have now begun using the time validation and scheduling components of the system, which is the final component of AIMS to be introduced. As of mid-October, nearly 7,000 health system employees are using the full scope of AIMS. We recognize that some team members may face challenges as they adapt to these new systems, and we are committed to supporting them and addressing issues as they arise.
"SHA leaders have been meeting regularly with employees and unions throughout implementation, including a meeting with SEIU West on Friday, October 10, to discuss and work collaboratively on their specific concerns.
"The system is being introduced gradually through a phased approach, supported by focused training before each launch. This approach has followed extensive system testing and employee-recommended improvements, with all components aligned to current Collective Bargaining Agreements. Dedicated support teams are working directly with units to resolve scheduling and payroll questions, while employee feedback continues to refine the system. The phased schedule has also been adjusted to ensure outstanding issues are resolved before advancing further."
SHA adds that when fully implemented, AIMS will "provide a centralized platform that gives health-care employees improved tools to manage their schedules and employment information, while enhancing data consistency across the province. The SHA is committed to advancing this important project in partnership with our employees, unions, and health system partners."
– With files from John Cairns.
