MLA lashes out at system that makes work unpredictable
By Walter Cordery, The Daily News
The company that owns and operates Nanaimo Seniors Village has reached an interim agreement with the union representing care aides, nurses and other workers at NSV.
But a spokesman for B.C.'s care providers said he expects to see more uncertainty as the province's elderly population continues to increase.
On Friday, staff at NSV, Dufferin Care Centre in Coquitlam and Beacon Hill Villa in Victoria learned that Abbey Therapeutic Services, a subcontractor to Retirement Concepts, which owns the three facilities, were told that they wouldn't be paid by for any work dating back to Nov. 15.
Abbey Therapeutics abruptly withdrew from its contract with Retirement Concepts, claiming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Retirement Concepts was in arrears of payment.
In a letter to the subsidiary Well Being Senior Services and its employees, Abbey said that unless the money was paid immediately, Abbey would withdraw its services from the three facilities and would not meet its payroll.
Tony Baena, Retirement Concepts' vice-president of operations, called Abbey's allegations "false and unfounded."
"Our contract with ATS stipulates 24 equal payments over 12 months. Our last payment was made on Nov. 17. The money was supposed to cover wages for ATS employees," he said.
Baena said Retirement Concepts had reached an agreement in principle with the Hospital Employees Union.
"We gave the employees the assurance that we would pay them while we tried to work out a more permanent solution."
Margi Blamey of the HEU confirmed that an interim agreement had been reached.
This is the fourth time in five years that family members and residents at NSV faced the uncertainty of not knowing who their future caregivers were going to be.
David Hurford of the B.C. Care Providers Association warns that B.C. is not prepared for our aging population. Hurford said the events at NSV and the two other seniors centres should serve as a wakeup call for British Columbians.
"The system as it is now is not sustainable," he said.
"Within a decade, the number of seniors over 65 will, for the first time ever, be higher than the number of people aged 15.
"We have to make plans for this changing demography. We face very serious challenges and I think family members should be concerned about the fragility of the system."
NDP health critic Adrian Dix blamed the turmoil on the provincial government allowing health-care companies to let staff go when a new company wins a new contract to provide health-care services.
That is not allowed in other industries, said Dix.
"None of these workers works for the care home owner, they work for the subcontractor," he said.
"We had absolutely nothing to do with Abbey Therapeutic Services' decision," said Baena.
"As far as we were concerned the contract was in place for its full term. We had no wish to see it end like this."
Nanaimo MLA Leonard Krog agreed with NSV family council chairman Kim Slater, who told the Daily News that the provincial government must rethink its decision to privatize care services for seniors residences and hospitals.
"This is the fourth time here," said Slater, whose elderly mother lives at NSV.
"Privatizing some things may be fine but not the care of the elderly.
"These P3s (private-public partnerships) the government has entered into have us continually embroiled in these kind of situations.
"I think that if Nanaimo Seniors Village is any example, these P3s are wrong in the delivery of seniors' care because the single most important thing for seniors in care is continuity of the service."
Krog said it was unconscionable that people at the end stages of their lives and who depend on workers for intimate care like being bathed, fed and dressed should have to repeatedly face the uncertainty of who was going to deliver that care.
"This is about seniors care at a time when many of them are at their most vulnerable."
Not only is it unfair to the elderly residents at seniors' centres but Krog agreed with Dix about it being unfair to workers.
"There is no other group of workers in the province who are treated this way," said Krog. "The last thing I want to see is the workers who provide intimate care to some of the people we love the most -- our parents -- be treated this way.
"It stinks."
Parksville-Qualicum Liberal MLA Ron Cantelon said he was aware of the three previous problems at NSV but not the recent uncertainty during the weekend.
"Thank you for letting me know and I will be bringing it up with the Minister of Health and Vancouver Island Health Authority as quickly as possible," he said.
