Grey Bruce Health unit officials will lay their cards on the table today to explain the need for layoffs to the Ontario Nurses association.
The equivalent to four full-time jobs, which could be up to twelve part-time jobs, will be cut this year from the 51 nurses currently with the Health unit.
A spokesperson with the health unit blames it mostly on tight budgeting by the province, with a three per cent increase this year instead of the anticipated five per cent.
Health Unit spokesperson Drew Ferguson also tells Bayshore Broadcasting news that some efficiencies in the new building on the waterfront, also pointed to a need for fewer nurses.
ONA president Linda Haslam-Stroud says any efficiencies they perform will mean less health care time for clients.
Haslam-Stroud claims at no time during the recent contact talks did health unit bargainers indicate cuts would resul from a three per cent wage increase.
She has threatened a bad faith bargaining charge, if the job cuts happen.
The ONA is heading into today’s talks looking to reverse the planned job cuts.
Haslam-Stroud also continues her call for an investigation into how the Health unit is being run, since no other public health unit is threatening job cuts to balance the budget.
