A couple dozen healthcare workers were making noise outside Bluewater Health's Sarnia site Thursday demanding the hospital fulfill its pay equity commitments.
SEIU Healthcare, representing frontline workers, says it's been trying to negotiate a pay equity plan with Bluewater Health for over a decade.
Pay Equity Representative Alex Murphy said negotiations began shortly after the Norman Street site amalgamated with Sarnia General and CEE Hospital in Petrolia to become Bluewater Health in 2003.
While most of the pay equity process was completed from 2005-2010, SEIU says the process was interrupted by litigation until 2014.
"The job evaluation process was 95 per cent completed toward the end of 2016, but the employer has come up with a number of different excuses and claimed impasse and refused to negotiate with us at certain times," said Murphy. "We're just asking them to return to meaningful negotiations. The last time we met with them, they actually suggested that we needed to start over again and collect new data, rather than finalizing a plan that was 95 per cent complete."
She said they've filed an application requesting the assistance of a review officer from the Pay Equity Commission to help both parties complete the final steps.
Calls to Bluewater Health for comment have not been returned.
Healthcare workers are rallying at Bluewater Health in Sarnia demanding the hospital fulfill pay equity commitments. #SLont pic.twitter.com/MDcmZIXwvH
— Melanie Irwin (@MIrwinCHOKNews) April 25, 2019
