Hastings and Prince Edward Counties/Sept. 29, 2023
As the current work stoppage by HPEPH staff represented by the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) and Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) continues, I would like to reinforce HPEPH’s commitment to the delivery of public health services and to the safety of our community. We remain committed to coming to an agreement with both parties so regular services can resume as soon as possible.
We are committed to continuing negotiations with ONA and CUPE professionally and respectfully. We continue to reach out to both unions with hopes of addressing their requests to the best of our ability. We have been in ongoing discussions with ONA and are meeting with their negotiating committee today with an aim to move closer to an agreement. We provided the CUPE negotiation committee with a written proposal last Friday, September 22 and are waiting for their response. We are working diligently to address the requests of both unions within our current budget and mandate.
Unionized staff have been presented with a salary increase that would ensure they remain in a highly competitive position in comparison with wages provided at other public health units. The negotiation committees have also offered numerous additional benefit improvements during the collective bargaining process. In addition to wages, HPEPH staff have excellent pension matching and benefits, extensive paid holiday and vacation entitlements, remote work, flexibility in schedules, and overall excellent working conditions.
As emphasized throughout the negotiation process, the work of HPEPH’s unionized staff is extremely important to keep the community healthy and safe; however, we have a responsibility to deliver our programs and services with the budget provided. It is important that the community understand that salary increases beyond what have been offered would impede our efforts to protect jobs, and as a result would impact the scope of services we are able to offer. We must remain fair to all those reliant on and impacted by our budget. This includes ONA and CUPE staff, other HPEPH staff, clients, and all community taxpayers.
While the current work stoppages means some HPEPH services have been temporarily disrupted or are being offered in an alternate manner, the community can be reassured that we are continuing to provide core critical services to protect the safety of the community. Non-union staff are working diligently to maintain core public health services during the labour disruption.
While services are being prioritized based on need and potential impact to the community, core services include, but are not limited to, responding to infectious disease cases and outbreaks, monitoring and responding to water quality issues, performing high priority inspections, conducting rabies investigations, maintaining provision of critical sexual health services including access to birth control for current clients, and ensuring access to harm reduction supplies and vaccines.
We remain optimistic that productive negotiations will continue, and we will come to agreements with both unions so we can resume provision of regular services. Until that time, I would like to thank community partners, clients, and the broader community for their patience.
Dr. Ethan Toumishey,
Medical Officer of Health and CEO
-30-
For more information contact:
Maureen Hyland, Communications Specialist
hyland.maureen@hpeph.ca
Communications Team
communications@hpeph.ca
About Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health (HPEPH) is a public health agency that serves the counties of Hastings and Prince Edward from four local offices. HPEPH is situated and provides services on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee people. We monitor the health of our local population, deliver programs and services within our communities, and help develop healthy public policies. We provide information and support in many areas to help improve the health and well-being of our residents. Together with our communities, we help people become as healthy as they can be. For more information, please visit hpePublicHealth.ca. You can also find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
We invite community partners and residents to share this notice with their respective networks.
