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Unifor Atlantic Regional Director Linda MacNeil is voicing concern around a plan by the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness to create a new government body regulating health professionals.
“We appreciate the opportunity to talk through what a new registry would mean for health care workers,” said MacNeil. “We aren’t opposed to a new government body for regulated health professionals in the right context but we caution against occupation-based registries as they provide little to no benefit while putting financial strain on lower-paid workers.”
Unifor made a submission to the Nova Scotia Department of Health following meetings held by government with the Council of Health Care Unions in Nova Scotia, of which Unifor is a member. Consultations surround the government’s proposed Nova Scotia Health Professions and Occupations Act which is exploring a registry for Continuing Care Assistants (CCAs) to regulate the profession.
MacNeil is particularly concerned with how a registry would impact the implementation of recommendations from the Nova Scotia Expert Panel on Long-Term Care.
“In our presentation to the government’s Expert Panel last year, we and many other unions, organizations and families made it very clear the sector is in crisis and the government must take urgent action to address low staffing levels, recruitment and retention issues, and working conditions,” said MacNeil.
Unifor suggests there are more effective and comprehensive ways to address systemic recruitment and retention problems in long-term care, as well as alternative ways to collect staffing data for human resource planning in the sector without creating a mandatory registry for CCAs.
Read the full submission here.
