Social Policy in Ontario

How a ‘pay raise’ turned into a nasty pay cut

Posted on August 4, 2016 in Delivery System

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Commentary – Low-paid health-care workers earning less money than before they got wage increase
Aug. 4, 2016.   By BOB HRPBURN, Politics

When is a $4-an-hour pay raise not a pay raise?

When it’s given to the lowest-paid health-care workers who suddenly find their weekly incomes falling — not increasing.

That’s exactly what’s happening for thousands of personal support workers (PSWs) in home- and community-care services across Ontario.

Those same PSWs cheered loudly when the government of Premier Kathleen Wynne announced last year it was raising their minimum base wage by $4 over three years up to a maximum of $19 an hour.

It was a dream come true for PSWs, most of whom work long hours and at a job that paid just $12.50 an hour. Only a handful of full-time PSWs earn more than $30,000 a year.

But that dream has turned into a nightmare as government health-care agencies force PSWs, who are paid by the hour and are not on a fixed salary, to spend less time with clients and have also reduced the number of clients they see.

The result is that many PSW actually earn less money now than they did before they received the government-mandated “pay raise.”

“We have received widespread complaints of our members losing clients and losing hours of work,” says Miranda Ferrier, president of the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association, which has 21,000 members.

Overall, there are about 34,000 PSWs working in the home- and community-care sector in Ontario.

Ferrier says she has raised the issue with provincial health officials with not much success, noting the problem is worst in Northern and eastern Ontario. “Clients are not receiving as many hours of care as before the pay raise,” she says. For example, an elderly client at home may now get just one shower a week, rather than two.

The support workers are blaming the mess on Community Care Access Centres (CCACs), the 14 government agencies that oversee home and community care across the province. Ontario is planning to disband the CCACs after a series of articles in the Star exposed widespread bureaucratic mismanagement and sky-high executive pay raises.

The PSWs contend the CCACs are trying to save money on the backs of PSWs by moves such as cutting the time a worker can spend with patients from 60 minutes to 45 minutes.

In such cases, home-care PSWs who are classified as part-time casual workers are paid only for 45 minutes, rather than a full hour. That means instead of being paid up to $19 an hour for a 60-minute patient visit, they are getting just $14.25 for a 45-minute visit.

The reduced patient time often forces PSWs to rush their elderly clients, some of whom are in pain or have difficulty walking, in order to complete the services within the allotted time.

At the same time, PSWs are seeing only the same number of patients each week or in some cases fewer patients. In addition, PSWs work all hours of the day, including weekends, must supply their own car, aren’t paid for travel time between clients, must pay for their uniforms and don’t get paid breaks. They receive no pay if a client cancels an appointment.

Overall, the result is less money — not more — for many PSWs than before Queen’s Park announced its “pay raise” in April, 2015.

For their part, CCACs insist they aren’t going after PSWs to hurt them financially. A spokesperson for Champlain CCAC, which covers the Ottawa region, did not address the issue of shorter visits, but did say care plans are based on an individual patient’s needs and “time spent with patients by the PSW is based on the actual amount of time required to complete the tasks involved in a care plan, be it 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes.”

Personal support workers are trained, licensed front-line health-care professionals whose duties include dressing, bathing, toileting and transferring patients, especially the elderly. They also provide emotional and physical support as well as companionship to isolated patients who are still living at home.

“As caregivers we are all here because we love what we do and we care about people and want to help them,” one PSW from eastern Ontario wrote recently in an email.

“We are the ones with them from the beginning to the end. We are the ones holding their hands and providing comfort as they are dying. We are the ones feeling the pain of loss. We are the ones who leave heartbroken and crying for our client as they suffer and pass away.

“The emotional toll this takes on us no one sees, yet we do it all again because we love what we do. We wipe our tears and put on a smile and go to our next client.

“We deserve better and our clients definitely deserve better.”

She’s right because treating low-paid workers so shabbily is a disgrace. It’s time the Wynne government took steps to ensure that its well-intentioned pay raise truly does mean more income, not less, for PSWs who deserve better.

< https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/08/04/how-a-pay-raise-turned-into-a-nasty-pay-cut-hepburn.html >

Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, standard of living

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