The Ontario Nurses Association is threatening an injunction against the Grey Bruce health unit over potential layoffs.
President Linda Haslam-Stroud says no formal layoff notices have been issued, but up to 12 part time jobs are threatened.
Haslam-Stroud says the issue is on hold until the New Year, after the Nurses Association told Health Unit management it would seek a court injunction … putting a halt to any layoffs.
She also threatened to file a bad faith bargaining charge with the Ministry of Labour and grievances under the current contract.
Just 2 months ago, the Grey Bruce health unit signed a new 3 year contract with the 51 Public health nurses that would increase wages 3% a year.
Haslam-Stroud says the Management is trying to now pay for that increase by laying off staff.
She says the new 17 million dollar waterfront Health unit isn’t what the clients want, they need the services of the public health nurses.
A very similar pattern happened with OPSEU workers at the health unit.
Their new agreement was followed by layoffs.
Haslam-Stroud feels there should be an investigation into the running of the health unit, since no other health unit in Ontario is facing layoffs after reaching new contracts.
She expects to meet with management at the health unit the first week in January to see if the layoffs can be avoided.
