Half of support staff looking for new jobs: poll

Nearly half of health-care support workers have looked for new jobs, or plan to, a survey found.

The survey of more than 5,000 workers with Shared Health, Southern Health and the Winnipeg and Northern regional health authorities found 47 per cent have been looking for “alternate employment” or plan to in the next year.

A combined 65 per cent of respondents said they were looking for a new job that is unrelated to health care or is in private health care.

More than 25,000 health support workers represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 204 and the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union could walk off the job Oct. 8. The workers include health-care aides, laundry workers, dietary aides, ward clerks, recreation co-ordinators and other support staff.

“Recruitment and retention of health-care support workers should be a priority for government and health-care employers,” CUPE local 204 health-care co-ordinator Shannon McAteer said in a news release Thursday.

“Now is the time to support these workers with real, tangible improvements that will keep them on the job.”

The report also found only 28 per cent of health-care aides reported staffing levels were sufficient to provide proper care to patients, residents or clients. Three-quarters of the workers surveyed reported working short-staffed once or more per week.

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The questions were part of a CUPE bargaining survey done in March.

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