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Dynacare workers do the same job as hospital lab staff who are considered essential, a labour relations officer with a health-care workers’ union told a Manitoba Labour Board hearing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Garrett Finck, an officer with the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, agreed the workers at the private company “do the same thing” as their public sector peers, as a hearing on whether Dynacare services are essential that began last week continued.<\/p>\n
He agreed during cross-examination that the work is critical “in the definition of a layperson.”<\/p>\n
But Finck said he disagreed with figures put forward by Shared Health to show the health-care system could not handle a strike, even if he had no evidence showing otherwise.<\/p>\n
“Shared Health has never been put to test before,” he said. “It’s untested.”<\/p>\n
The labour board proceedings began last week, after it agreed with the province’s request to halt a strike by lab workers with Dynacare, a private company contracted by the province to provide blood testing services.<\/p>\n
Workers went on strike on Sept. 8 and were ordered back to work later that day.<\/p>\n
Keith LaBossiere, counsel for the province, questioned Finck on Wednesday about an email the union sent to Shared Health ahead of the strike, saying it would consider some contingency plans a violation of anti-scab legislation.<\/p>\n
“You’re coming to the board here saying, ‘Don’t worry, board, Shared Health [has these plans],'” LaBossiere said. “But you’re telling Shared Health they can’t do it.”<\/p>\n
Possible ‘unfair labour practice’: union<\/p>\n
The union said in the Sept. 3 email it had raised concerns about Shared Health lab workers \u2014 also represented by the health-care professionals’ association \u2014 being expected to do extra work during a strike. That might fall under their statutory right to refuse work, the union said.<\/p>\n
“The circumstances here warrant serious consideration of an unfair labour practice,” the email said.<\/p>\n
Finck told the board that members employed by Shared Health weren’t necessarily being instructed to take the work during a Dynacare strike.<\/p>\n
He said the Shared Health collective agreement gives the employer the ability to introduce new shifts and the ability to call an emergency.<\/p>\n
“Those are options that are available,” Finck said.<\/p>\n
He said that as far as he knew, the union had not been consulted on the contingency plans.<\/p>\n
LaBossiere said the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals was arguing one thing in front of the board and another thing outside the hearing.<\/p>\n
“This email doesn’t say, ‘We’re just asking you to follow the collective agreement,'” he said.<\/p>\n
LaBossiere said the union seemed to be suggesting the previous email was only advising Shared Health to follow the collective agreement.<\/p>\n
The lawyer added that any emergency clause in the Shared Health agreement wouldn’t supersede the Labour Relations Act.<\/p>\n
Get back to table: minister<\/p>\n
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Wednesday Dynacare and the union need to return to the bargaining table.<\/p>\n
The company has an obligation to pay workers fairly, the minister said during an unrelated announcement.<\/p>\n
“We’re unapologetically a government that supports labour,” Asagwara said.<\/p>\n
“We respect and revere [workers’] rights. We also know that it is fundamentally important to make sure that Manitobans have access to the health services that they need.”<\/p>\n
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Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says Dynacare and the union need to go back to the bargaining table. (Gilbert Rowan\/Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n
The strike followed a breakdown in contract negotiations, primarily over wages, with the union saying Dynacare workers earn less than public-sector lab workers.<\/p>\n
According to the union, reaching wage parity with public-sector labs would costs about $6 million in 2026-27, based on calculations from a chartered professional accountant.<\/p>\n
Dynacare’s last offer would have funded less than 15 per cent of the cost wage parity, the union said in a Tuesday news release.<\/p>\n
Union president Jason Linklater said the Manitoba government could step in “to make it right.” <\/p>\n
The release pointed to a portion of the province’s contract with Dynacare, obtained through a freedom of information request, that says the American-owned company “must comply with all reasonable directions and requests of Manitoba.”<\/p>\n
Asagwara said the NDP government’s expectation is for employers to ensure they’re taking “the most responsible approach in delivering services.”<\/p>\n
The labour board hearing is set to resume next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-899054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899054","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=899054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}