{"id":19190,"date":"2020-08-07T15:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/ontario-pledges-help-for-overworked-underpaid-personal-support-workers-148661"},"modified":"2020-08-07T15:00:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T19:00:44","slug":"ontario-pledges-help-for-overworked-underpaid-personal-support-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/08\/07\/ontario-pledges-help-for-overworked-underpaid-personal-support-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario pledges help for \u2018overworked,\u2019 \u2018underpaid\u2019 personal support workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Canadian Press<\/span> | August 7, 2020 <\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s overworked and underpaid personal support workers will soon be receiving government assistance, the province\u2019s premier said Thursday as he heaped praise on a group who have been on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 in long-term care homes.<\/p>\n

Doug Ford said recent conversations with PSWs at his mother-in-law\u2019s long-term care home in Toronto shed light on the conditions many are working under. He said he\u2019s aware that many go unpaid for their overtime hours. \u201cThey are grossly underpaid in my opinion,\u201d he said at his daily news conference. \u201cWe\u2019re going to sit down and we\u2019re going to come up with a solution to support these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford didn\u2019t offer an estimate as to when a plan of action might be ready or any measures it could contain. But personal support workers have figured prominently in the fight against COVID-19 since the outbreak shifted into high gear in Ontario, prompting the government to impose new rules as case numbers soared in long-term care homes and other congregate-living facilities.<\/p>\n

Read: Canadian employers increasing safety measures but not pay for frontline workers: survey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In mid-April, nearly a month after a provincial state of emergency was first declared, Ford announced health-care providers including PSWs would be forced to work in only one long-term care facility at once. At the time, many stated they held multiple jobs at more than one home in order to make end\u2019s meet.<\/p>\n

Any changes Ford puts into effect must address the precarious working conditions and financial instability that many support workers struggle with on a daily basis, according to one health-care union that includes PSWs among its members.<\/p>\n

The Service Employees International Union Healthcare welcomed Ford\u2019s pledge of help, adding aggressive, specific measures are needed as soon as possible. \u201cWhat we need now are historic investments in human resources with more frontline staff, more full-time employment, and increased universal wages, benefits and pensions for all PSWs,\u201d said SEIU Healthcare president Sharleen Stewart.<\/p>\n

Read: Health-care union to introduce low-fee, portable savings plan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stewart also called on the government to reverse policies enacted during the COVID-19 crisis, such as wage freezes and a bill that grants the government permission to deny or cancel vacation requests.<\/p>\n

The province\u2019s official opposition agreed, with New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath calling on Ford to back up Thursday\u2019s words with immediate action. \u201cPSWs don\u2019t need Ford feigning surprise at how hard they work,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cStaff are paid barely above minimum wage and they\u2019re often stuck trying to put together part-time jobs without benefits at several homes just to make ends meet. . . . We need to do better for all PSWs across the system because it hurts staff and seniors in nursing homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association said it was \u201cvery encouraged\u201d by the announcement. \u201cThe OPSWA is looking forward to continuing our work with the government to ensure all personal support workers are encompassed in this promise,\u201d wrote Miranda Ferrier, the association\u2019s president, in a statement.<\/p>\n

Read: Lower income workers likely to see least paid time off as pandemic swirls: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Press | August 7, 2020 Ontario\u2019s overworked and underpaid personal support workers will soon be receiving government assistance, the province\u2019s premier said Thursday as he heaped praise on a group who have been on...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}