{"id":185558,"date":"2025-10-02T18:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185558\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T18:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:07:10","slug":"alberta-health-services-forcing-some-non-union-workers-to-take-unpaid-time-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/185558\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta Health Services forcing some non-union workers to take unpaid time off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta\u2019s<\/a> health authority is forcing some employees to take unpaid time off to ease its financial crunch, according to a memo obtained by The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n

Alberta Health Services (AHS) said employees who are not unionized and fall within certain salary grades must take two days off without pay before the end of March, 2026. The memo, distributed Wednesday, said this is a \u201cone-time cost savings measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document, from Erin O\u2019Neill, the agency\u2019s senior vice-president of finance and shared services, did not indicate how much money the furlough program would save or the extent of the organization\u2019s budgetary shortfall. <\/p>\n

It also lacked detail on how many employees would be affected and what types of positions would be hit. The policy applies to non-unionized exempt employees, depending on their place on the pay scale. <\/p>\n

Casual workers, new hires and those who had transferred to a provincial health agency or corporation as of Oct. 1 are exempt, according to the accompanying explainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease know that we explored many options before taking this step, but that it is necessary to meet our financial commitments as we continue to face budgetary pressures,\u201d Ms. O\u2019Neill said in the memo. <\/p>\n

Danielle Smith axes entire Alberta Health Services board for the second time<\/a><\/p>\n

The Alberta government, at the end of August, said it expected to finish the fiscal year with a deficit of $6.5-billion, up $1.3-billion from its original forecast. The government blamed weak oil prices and trade uncertainty, fuelled by U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs, for the widening shortfall. <\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith<\/a> has, for years, pledged to make Alberta\u2019s health care<\/a> system more efficient. Her government is revamping the system by stripping AHS of decision-making powers and reducing its role to that of a hospital administrator. The government has reorganized care into four organizations, with each reporting to separate ministries. Critics argue the upheaval is costly and ineffective.<\/p>\n

Alberta Health Services, in the question-and-answer document that accompanied Ms. O\u2019Neill\u2019s memo, said it \u201ccontinues to assess cost-saving measures that will limit the impact to patient care.\u201d The mandatory two days of unpaid leave was one of several money-saving ideas that were approved, the document says, noting that others included \u201cvacancy and excessive vacation management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristi Bland, an AHS spokeswoman, said the organization is trying to limit the fallout that cost-saving efforts have on employees. The furloughs, she said, will not apply to employees working directly with patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not impact frontline staff, and no health care services will be impacted by this measure,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cSome non-unionized positions are exempt to ensure those earning below a certain threshold are not impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigator\u2019s report into Alberta Health Services contract allegations delayed again<\/a><\/p>\n

Press secretaries representing the four ministers who oversee aspects of Alberta\u2019s health care system did not acknowledge a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, AHS walked back changes to its food and drink policy requiring patients in emergency departments and other non-inpatient areas to bring their own provisions. The move was seen as a cost-cutting measure but was halted after public outcry in April.<\/p>\n

In February, 2024, Alberta Health Services implemented a hiring freeze for management and non-clinical support positions to help manage an expected budget overrun. During that period, new job postings and hirings required an exemption from the organization\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n

Andre Tremblay serves as AHS\u2019s official administrator after the government dismissed the organization\u2019s board and fired its CEO in January. <\/p>\n

The former CEO, Athana Mentzelopoulos, alleges in a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit that government officials leaned on her to sign deals that favoured private businesses. <\/p>\n

She alleges that the government wanted her to sign contracts for chartered surgical facilities with compensation terms that she considered excessive. The Globe and Mail in February reported<\/a> that the proposed terms for two new surgical clinics were higher than what Alberta Health Services pays a competing facility and what it costs AHS to perform the same operations.<\/p>\n

The Alberta government alleges that it fired Ms. Mentzelopoulos for incompetence, in part because she failed to execute its strategy on private surgical clinics. <\/p>\n

None of the allegations have been tested in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s health authority is forcing some employees to take unpaid time off to ease its financial crunch, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,392,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-185558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}