At Royal Jubliee and Victoria General hospitals, nearly 180 privatized food service workers are now back under Island Health’s wing.
It was the second group of workers in the Capital Region to be brought back into the public sector as health authority employees, the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) said on Friday.
According to the union, in 2002, the former BC Liberal government enacted Bill 29—the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act.
It ultimately left many housekeeping and food services employees at hospitals and care homes contracted out to multinational corporations.
“For nearly two decades, these food service workers have been pushed to the margins of the healthcare workforce, with low wages and substandard benefits,” said Meena Brisard, HEU secretary-business manager.
Brisard says the privatization policies of the previous government “devastated” the lives of thousands of workers in a sector.
“It fragmented healthcare delivery, undermined wages and working conditions, and made our hospitals less safe for workers and patients,” she said.
But under the BC NDP government, the legislature repealed Bill 29 in 2018—setting the stage for the repatriation of these privatized services.
Plans to end 21 commercial contracts across the province were then announced in August 2021, and the HEU says it’s been working to ensure a seamless transition ever since.
“The health care workers coming back under health authorities will be covered by the province-wide Facilities collective agreement and see improved wages and benefits as a result,” the union said.
Still, even with the planned repatriation of thousands of workers in the coming year, the HEU points to hundreds more who work at public-private hospitals whose return back under the health authorities has not been confirmed.
“Every single healthcare worker is critical to quality healthcare delivery and should be part of a reunited team, regardless of the facility’s funding model,” added Brisard.
“Our union will continue to push until all privatized housekeepers and food service workers have been repatriated.”
