The Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan (HSAS) has returned to the bargaining table. Contract talks between the association and the health care employers resumed on January 6, with a renewed focus on staffing problems in hospitals in the province.
The union, which represents a wide range of health care professionals in the province, has been without a contract for 21 months, says Cathy Dickson, President.
The biggest issue for the Health Sciences Association is recruitment and retention, Dickson notes. She says many positions are not being filled, which increases the work load, which leads to staff being overworked and having difficulty keeping a high standard of care, and also their own health.
"We need to find a way to encourage people to get into the healthcare field and in those professions, as well as to stay there."
A large concern for Dickson is the number of vacancies in professions throughout the province. She says that health regions throughout the province have been using the vacancies to balance the budgets through vacancy management.
"Unfortunately, what that means is that the people in the departments where the vacancies exist have to absorb that vacancy and work more hours and harder and with a larger case load."
The Health Sciences Association has looked at the rates of Health Sciences Alberta rates as well as the rates for nurses, Dickson notes, as those are the most comparable groups. She says that nurses are 31 per cent above the average rate for Health Sciences members.
"That we find quite unacceptable, considering that before the nurses got their new contract, we were 2.9 per cent behind, now we're 31 per cent. The vast majority of our members are required to have more education and training than a registered nurse in Saskatchewan."
"If we want to recruit and retain people in healthcare in the other professions, we need to have benefits and wages that are comparable."
The Health Sciences Association will be back to the negotiating table on January 13 and 14, after the SAHO needed extra time to examine their proposals.
