by Zaid Noorsumar
CarePartners, a for-profit home care company, is imposing a new contract on nearly 3,000 workers in Ontario that has been effectively rejected by the bargaining committee during negotiations.
For some workers, the new contract will result in an effective pay cut worth several thousand dollars. The workforce comprises predominantly women, many of whom are racialized immigrants.
Refusing to budge on negotiations
Bargaining between Service International Employees Union (SEIU) and CarePartners began in January 2019 but resulted in a deadlock after nearly 11 months of negotiations. The last ratified contract expired in March 2019.
According to SEIU, the employer refused to budge on several key issues throughout the bargaining process. CarePartners has denied adequate wage increases, refused to provide paid sick days, and ignored workers’ concerns about pervasive health and safety issues.
In November, the employer filed a “no-board,” which placed both parties in a legal position to either lockout or strike.
Using the lockout as a threat, CarePartners is forcing its employees to work under the terms of the last offer it tabled at the bargaining table.
The union has filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Huge loss for some workers
A pay stub obtained by Rankandfile.ca shows a Quinte region worker received over $5,000 in 2019 for travel pay. Under the employer-imposed contract, the same amount of travelling would net her about $1,200.
Workers operating from the Quinte and Timmins branches were the last remaining CarePartners employees still paid hourly wages while traveling between clients.
However, based on CarePartners’ imposed contract, this base travel wage of $14/hour to $15.44/hour has been eliminated and replaced with the company’s now standard formula of a minute’s pay for every three kilometers traveled.
Meagre wage increases
About 60 per cent of the workers earn $16.50/hour while a senior cohort of employees receives $19/hour. Neither group has earned a pay increase since 2016.
For those earning the lower rate, the new contract bumps them up to $17 but strips them of accumulated seniority.
“They’ll have to re-accrue seniority to move up the wage grid. So it’ll take them eight years to get to $19,” says Tali Zrehen, SEIU spokesperson.
Those currently at $19 will get a 10 cent raise by 2021, she says.
Health and safety issues
Zrehen says that workers face all types of health and safety challenges during home visits, from dealing with uncleared snowy driveways to bed bugs and dog bites.
She says injuries are very common. The lack of monitoring and regulation leaves workers to fend for themselves.
“There are clients who are physically or sexually abusive towards our members,” she says. “There are also issues with family in the home being abusive to members.”
The union has proposed several solutions on the bargaining table to no avail, says Zrehen.
Race to the bottom
Until the mid-1990s, the vast majority of home care providers were unionized non-profits who operated as a network of charitable services.
That changed when the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris introduced “managed competition.” The non-profits were forced to compete against for-profits for government contracts across the province.
In many cases for-profits outbid the non-profits by lowering their labour costs. Some non-profits had to shut down in communities where they had delivered services for decades. To survive competitive bidding, non-profit providers began to mimic the for-profits.
Stable, unionized work gave way to precarious working conditions – long and unpredictable hours, inadequate compensation for travel and split-shifts.
Predictably, clients lost personal support workers (PSWs) they had been accustomed to for years. Nurses and PSWs moved to long-term care homes and hospitals for better wages, or quit the healthcare sector altogether.
Today, the home care industry reflects the restructuring in the 1990s. For-profits provide the majority of services but in many cases the non-profits are not a lot better.
According to SEIU, CarePartners is one of the worst employers the union deals with. And yet, it is one of only two providers contracted to provide services across all 14 regional health authorities, the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
The CEO and owner of CarePartners, Linda Knight, has earned the distrust and indignation from the employees. Knight is also the chair of Home Care Ontario, the powerful association that represents for-profit providers. Perhaps it is fitting that the ruthlessness which has shaped the sector is best exhibited by her firm.
As one worker put it, “CarePartners is a brutal, brutal company.”
CarePartners should be renamed CarelessPartners
I have clients that say they should not be called Carepartners because they don’t care!
I say this all the time.. because its complete truth
Carepartners treats its workers terribly. Biggest problem is steeling your hours for new hires so they will stay. Then yoir left begging for hours to be able to pay your bills.
Same as SE, saint elizabeth. Take it from fulltimers give to new staff
Why should they be called Careless Partners
More like I care about money not my psws
Terrible..I work for this company and it’s a shame. I enjoy my day to day with my patients..but who can survive on what little they pay..I chose this career for, my parents are getting up in age, and I want to be the one taking care of them..maybe I can in washing and cooking but I can’t even afford me off my wage.
Why do I stay..it’s my patients,they become family ..they look forward to our chats and care I give them..I make them smile even when I want to cry..
I just hit my 5 year with carePartners and still have not received my pin or my letter of recognition..why don’t they care about us,the ones bringing in the money to this company..I’m a compassionate person and this breaks my heart that they are using that to their advantage..
CarePartners is a joke. All the partners care about is making a a quick buck not just off dying clients but also the workers that make Linda millions. I have to use my personal vehicle and I can’t even afford the extra PROPER insurance coverage so I couldn’t afford to go through an insurance claim in 2019 when I rear ended someone which cost me 2000 bucks out of pocket. What does she drive and she gets to write it off and her new one. How about she switches places with me and see who does better, she would fold like a piece of origami. Ok so enough trashing her but what about us not having benefits and at good rates and also how about a pension, how do we end up after however many years we decide to put up with this all. Will it end. God save us all.
In this fast placed world with more and more pressure on Psws cause the hospitals are full and the ltc are full more and more demand falls on us Psws makes added stress Psws shouldn’t have to carry on their backs and minds every day
I had a lot of experience with Care Partners after my father’s hospitalization. The PSWs themselves were wonderful! Very kind and willing to help however they could, even with things they technically are not “supposed” to do. However, it was a different person every day. They’d come at different times every day. We wouldn’t know if/when they were coming until we got a phone call in the morning, and sometimes his “morning care” PSW wouldn’t show up until noon. This screams of poor management who are trying to cut corners. I truly feel for the PSWs. They do an invaluable service and deserve far better from their employer.
I agree with Nikki that the unreliability of the scheduling (timing, which worker) negates continuity of care, which is recognized as a valuable and necessary process in health care. We have a core group of workers who work with my family member, and they are everything one would want: reliable, caring, conscientious. But there are gaps in the schedule that CarePartners has struggled with for years to fill. I have to say that we’ve also had some terrible workers over the years and we’re pressured by management to accept them OR ELSE all service will be withdrawn. The workers are stressed by their working conditions and we’re stressed with meeting the needs of our family member. For-profit home care has become a race to the bottom in terms of the overall experience for both workers and families.
I think the gov’t needs to set clear working boundaries to these companies that are feeding off of taxpayer dollars. I cannot understand that when the PSW’s who, let’s face it, are the gravy train for these for profit companies are not treated fairly when it comes to sick days ( you can bet admin has sick days) and a reasonable wage increase come contract time. You cannot run your vehicle with gas and maintenance and make a decent contribution to your families lifestyle on 16.50 an hour and they know it. Do they think we all have someone supplementing our incomes?
Carepartners exploits the compassion of their frontline workers who are paying out of pocket to service their patients. This at a cost of not being able to provide the necessities of life to their own faamilies. Many PSWs are relying on foodbanks and other resources due to the lack of consistency of hours and inability to achieve a living wage. Despicable way to treat those who care for our most vulneraable!
love my job but i hate the look on my clients face when scheduler book me on the wrong time or the client is upset about not having service for a few days its sad that its come to that
I worked for quite a few years for Care Partners as a Palliative health care worker. I LOVED my job, and my Managers were really caring. Unfortunately, it is true that the pay did not reflect the work that we did, nor the travel time, nor the kilometers we travelled.. I worked in a hospital prior to working for Care Partners and took an $9 PER HOUR pay cut to work with them.. So as you can see I didn’t do it for the pay, but because I truly loved what I did, and I believed in people dying at home if that is what they wished.. It was a privilege for me to be there for them. And I feel sad because Care Partners really DOES have the equipment, protocols, workers, etc.. to really make this work for them and be a true success for palliative patients.. But because they pay their employees so little compared to Nursing Homes, or hospitals, or any other employers.. they loose good-willed employees and therefore keep no consistency for patients who just need a little of just that in their final days or even other clients who just need help and pay for that help and deserve more.. I hope they really do figure it out.. The patients and clients deserve it. And whoever started Care Partners I’m sure had the right intentions and the same vision. I hope they go through with that..
We have had carepartners for 4 yrs as my husband has Alzheimer’s. I can only praise these workers they are so dedicated to there clients, they give so much care and it does not stop with just the requirements they go beyond making sure some seniors on there own take there medications and have some sort of food when they are there. Thank God we have them they CARE. They do not get enough in wages and all the driving they do in winter in rural areas they are taking a lot of risks they certainly do not get compensated Enough for wear and tear on there vehicles. Cannot you not imagine how hard it would be on our health system if we did not have these workers. Maybe some of these government workers should get off there soft seats and get out an follow these girls around for 1 day and then answer the question would you do this. I doubt it.
The only reward of being a psw and working for this company is knowing we as psw make a different in our patients lives. Its only if there was a way to freeze their pay of the top dogs eg. Linda Knight and office staff and allow them to live on our pay I’m sure they wouldn’t survive year but front line work mostly single parents families are to live on this sad sad pay. I started to work in the field earning approx 10.50 per hr and it took almost 18 yrs to get 15.44 what joke that means I have had 27 cent raise per year. since I started working in home care.
I feel I have to fight for hrs and if a worker takes a day off you will be punished for a week or so meaning no fill in or new patient. I don’t understand the waiting list of new patients I know it takes me 9hrs day to get 6rs payed hrs. no other job is like this if you worked anywhere else 8 hrs get payed 8 yrs. Its time CAREPARTNER SHOWS REPECT TO THIER STAFF WITHOUT PSW THEIR WILL NOT BE ANY PROFIT.
worked for CarePartners for 6 years and now i’m working for a Assistive Living Organisation and I can honestly say that what Carepartners are doing to their workers is plain abuse!!! No questions about that! They take away your regular clients, they cut your client’s time in half, they make you go out of town without paying your gas, they make you work even when your sick,……I could go on and on and on ….Shame on you Carepartners….Shame on you!!!
I’ve worked for care partners in two communities. I finally left because I couldn’t deal with stressing out with monthly bills and the lockout and losing all our great schedulers. I worked split shifts often just to try and make ends meet. I had four jobs at one point because my main job which was with care partners could not provide me enough income to pay bills and still have a life. I miss all my clients dearly as a lot have mentioned they do become your next family as you’re always with them. But at the end I got tired of making excuses for the company as to why they couldn’t find someone to replace the visit or having to cut corners so the paws that were working could complete all the services clients for the evening. And most of all I did not want to stick with a company that clients are calling scare partners. That alone leaves a horrible taste in your mouth
You’re amazing! ❤️❤️❤️
I’m old enough to have been around the block a time or two and all I have to say is, I’m sick and tired of my taxes being increased every year whether it’s income tax, carbon tax or whatever else the government is calling it these days, but that’s another story. Don’t get me started. I’m just tired of any government over the years taking more money and at the same time taking away valuable services performed by valuable human beings. It’s not rocket science people. Stop the greed. Stop treating the workers like garbage and pay them the wage they deserve for going to work every day helping and looking after the very people who built this country. Shame on you. Have a heart and do the right thing!
Maybe CarePartners could team up with Bayshore in Carleton Place.
Be better to have one crappy company with feckless management then two!
Support your field staff because the field staff keep the bank flowing!
I worked for care partners for 2 weeks that was long enough for me to realize that was not a company for me. In the two weeks I was there I was treated like dirt under the management’s feet. I have been in health care for more than 35 years. I have seen alot of changes and to be honest they are not for the best. I hope the PSW’s wake up and let the company and management fall on their proverbial ass. Most clients will receive care from other organizations that respect both the client and the staff.