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March 20, 2018
HALIFAX - The Nova Scotia government has failed to re-invest in key priorities such as long-term care, where wait lists are long and previous cuts have reduced the quality of care.
“Once again the McNeil government has let down Nova Scotia seniors, their families and the overworked long-term care providers with a failure to invest in the sector,” said Lana Payne, Atlantic Regional Director.
After cutbacks and layoffs, what was needed was a serious investment in the health sector. Instead, the government announced it would invest in long-term care beds if they were needed. “Isn’t the wait list for nursing home beds evidence enough for the McNeil government? Nova Scotia has one of the oldest populations in the country and more and more seniors have complex needs when they enter a nursing home, which increases the level of care they require and yet no investment was made to improve nursing home care,” said Payne.
Unifor represents about 2,000 workers in the long-term care sector throughout Nova Scotia. Health care and long-term workers have been living with government imposed wage freezes. With respect to health care, Unifor said it would have liked to have seen measures to deal with recruitment and retention for hard-to-fill disciplines. The union also represents over 2,400 workers in acute care facilities throughout the province.
More than 4,500 Unifor members have been impacted by the government’s anti-worker wage restraint legislation and many report higher levels of stress and increased workload, and some are among the lowest paid health care workers in the country.
For more information, please contact Unifor Atlantic Communications representative Natalie Clancy: @email or (902) 478-9283 (cell)
