CLAC Pickets Demand More Time for Senior Care

DATE: November 03, 2011

RIDGETOWN, ON—Healthcare workers at The Village on the Ridge, a long term care home, along with the family members of residents, protested cuts to personal support worker (PSW) hours made by the home.

At the beginning of October, seven and a half PSW hours per day were cut from the schedule, despite full occupancy of the home. Members of Southwestern Ontario Health Care and Service Workers Union, Local 303, are frustrated by the lack of answers from management, who cited “budgetary” issues as the reason for the cutbacks and declined to comment further. 

“Front line care to residents needs to be increased, not cut,” says Trish Douma, CLAC’s southwestern Ontario director and healthcare coordinator. “Management needs to be transparent about the process if they say it is a budgetary issue. We don’t believe nursing home residents should be the ones paying the price.” 

Current legislation does not specify minimum staffing levels for PSWs. This allows companies such as Revera, who owns Village on the Ridge, to cut hours from front line care.

CLAC is leading a Time to Care campaign to petition the government for more funding for hands-on care. Further details can be found at www.atimetocare.ca.