The union that represents registered and practical nurses in Newfoundland and Labrador has disclosed that travel nurses recruited by private agencies are being awarded shifts before full-time and casual nurses in the province.
Yvette Coffey, president of the Registered Nurses’ Union Newfoundland and Labrador said she cannot understand why the health authority would exercise the most expensive option for nursing when a less expensive one is in place.
Coffey, who heads a union that represents over 5,800 registered nurses and nurse practitioners asked: “Why would you pay overtime to a travel agency nurse who’s making double the salary of the registered nurse under our union contract versus paying overtime to our member or a casual who is the cheapest option in the collective agreement?”
She said the nurses’ union has filed what it called “a group/policy grievance” over agency nurses getting shifts before its members and six other individual grievances have been filed.
She said: “As a union, we’ve been having discussions with N.L. Health Services and filing grievances as appropriate and we’ve resolved it in some cases.”
“Why would you not use a casual nurse or even our permanent staff versus paying that money? That’s taxpayers’ money that could be better spent on the people who are actually living and staying here in Newfoundland and Labrador?”
She urged the province to choose nurses represented by the union over those provided by nurse agencies.
She said: “The government’s first priority should be the employees of Newfoundland and Labrador and not a private company.”
The province says it has been compelled to use travel nurses because Newfoundland and Labrador is battling acute nursing shortage. The union says the last vacancy report it saw, in April, listed 746 vacancies but the Health Department says the province has hired 310 nurses since then.
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