Striking nurses are reporting “widespread employer intimidation” as job action ramps up.
“Nursing managers have started to threaten nurses, saying, ‘If you don’t clean a stretcher or if you don’t pick up something or stock something — these sorts of extra duties — then we’re going to report you to the College,’” B.C. Nurses’ Union President Adriane Gear told Black Press Media on Tuesday, July 7. “It’s been a lot of bullying and intimidation at the workplace.”
Nurses have filed more than 1,400 reports of intimidation since job action began on July 2, according to the union. These nurses say they are being threatened with discipline, told they could lose their licences and being forced to work overtime or perform non-nursing duties.
“The fact that the employer is taking this time to intimidate people as opposed to focusing on doing those tasks themselves is a problem,” Gear said.
She says patient care is a protected essential service that will continue, but it is the striking workers’ right to refuse to perform extra duties.
“We’re in a legal, lawful position able to exercise our rights, our constitutional rights, and the employer is threatening us,” Gear said.
The union is expanding job action in response, planning to set up picket lines on Thursday at Surrey Memorial Hospital and the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre. Picket lines were already up at Vancouver General Hospital on Tuesday.
Attorney General Niki Sharma was asked about the allegations of intimidation at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday.
“Of course, we’re a government that supports the right of workers to strike and the power of labour to improve working conditions for people,” she said. “And we hope that at the collective bargaining table, all issues can be resolved.”
The Health Employers’ Association of B.C. says it has asked the union for specific information about alleged incidents and has committed to following up.
“HEABC and its members share the priority of maintaining safe patient care while respecting lawful job action, collective agreements and professional scopes of practice,” the HEABC said in a written statement. “Employers are not directing employees to perform work outside their role, qualifications, professional scope, or collective agreement obligations.”
The association added that employers encourage the union to raise specific allegations through established labour relations board channels.
Gear says the union has begun this process.
“We have put in an emergency sort of application at the labour board,” she said.
Gear added that nurses are striking for better working conditions, but the goal is not to endanger patients. It is to ensure the government is hiring enough and not overburdening nurses who she says are constantly being asked to do “more with less.’
“We do not want to jeopardize patient care in any way,” she said.