Members in the five units representing Home and Community Care Support Services workers at OPSEU/SEFPO have ratified new two-year collective agreements ahead of a major restructuring of the sector imposed by the Ford government.
The deals include general wage increases of 3 per cent in each year of the agreement as well as other monetary improvements and will expire in 2025.
Moving forward, members are most concerned with job security as the Ford government implements the latest in a series of changes to the oversight and structure of the home and community care sector.
On June 28, 2024, Bill 135 – The Convenient Care at Home Act will come into force – and all 14 LHINs and the agencies coordinating home care in Ontario will be amalgamated into a new superagency called Ontario Health atHome.
Ontario Health atHome will be tasked with overseeing the entire province’s home care offerings and replace all functions of the LHINs and Home and Community Care Support Services including: care assessments, care coordination, and provision of care.
Last weekend, these members also received an arbitrated Award for Bill 124 and the renewal agreements which have now been ratified.
The remedy for Bill 124 as Awarded by Gerry Lee was in line with other settlements in the sector. Members will see the following retroactive increases (on top of the 1% previously awarded under the wage restraint legislation):
- 2020 – 0.75 %
- 2021 – 1 %
- 2022 – 2 %
Our health care system, including home care, is in the middle of a staffing crisis. It will not be solved by this reorganizing, and in fact recruitment and retention challenges could be exacerbated by increasing profitization. Patients and health care providers know better. We all deserve better.
Working with other unions representing workers in the sector OPSEU/SEFPO has launched a digital action to tell the Ford government to stop the amalgamation and consult with frontline home care workers about how to strengthen and improve home care in this province.