One day after International Women’s Day, and one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in favour of SEIU Healthcare and the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) to grant personal support workers, nurses, and other healthcare workers in almost exclusively female workplaces, like for-profit nursing homes without access to male comparators in their workplaces, the right to maintain pay equity with continuing reference to a male comparator. Shamefully, the Ford government and participating nursing homes appealed this ruling. Keep reading to find out the final result.

In May 2019, the Ford government and for-profit nursing and long-term care homes filed an appeal that granted women working in these sectors no access to proxy methods. This appeal would take away the systematic comparison between female wages to male wages to ensure wage discrimination based on gender does not occur. That appeal was heard by the Ontario Court of Appeal, and they ruled in favour of working women this past March. That decision was appealed once again, this time to the Supreme Court of Canada, who denied the appeal, ending a provincial battle that began in 1995 and giving SEIU Healthcare and the working women of Ontario a major victory.

After months of our union publicly lobbying for higher wages for all healthcare workers, including a $25 minimum wage for PSWs, the federal government committed to raising the minimum wage for PSWs to $25 per hour. While we continue to put pressure on both levels of government to implement this immediately, as well as raise the wages of all other healthcare professions, this PSW wage increase would help lift workers out of economic insecurity and ensure higher quality care.

From October 4-6, service workers at Kirkland & District Hospital and Englehart & District Hospital voted through a PSLRTA (Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act) for SEIU Healthcare to serve as their union moving forward as part of Blanche River Health. We look forward to growing our family and creating a stronger healthcare system in Northern Ontario.

“SEIU Healthcare is my union of choice because they have a proven track record of supporting healthcare workers and especially those working in northern Ontario. They know our issues and have our backs. I’m grateful they will continue to represent us and am excited to welcome our new colleagues from the Englehart site to the SEIU Healthcare family,”

– Shirley Ducsharm, Medical Device Reprocessing, Blanche River Health

On October 14, 2021, the employees at Houselink and Mainstay voted through a PSLRTA (Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act) for SEIU Healthcare to be their union. We are excited to welcome our new members from Mainstay and thank our members from Houselink for their continued trust and support. We look forward to working together to improve their working conditions, wages, and retirement security.

“Being represented by SEIU Healthcare means having a union that specializes in the work we do and the issues we face. It also means belonging to a pension plan, which is so rare for community service workers like us. SEIU Healthcare has been one of the leading voices and advocates for frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and it was an easy choice to move forward with them as our union.”

– Yun Lin, Community Mental Health and Housing Worker, Houselink

This past fall, for the first time in history through the SEIU Benefit Trust Fund, Circle of Care members achieved health benefits in their collective agreement during bargaining. These members achieving benefits such as prescription coverage and dental and vision care are a step in the right direction for all home and community care workers.