On Friday, October 4, about 100 SEIU Healthcare members and staff rallied outside of Southlake Regional Health Centre to call on the hospital to finalize the joint pay equity process with our union.
Recently, Southlake abandoned our joint process because they prefer the outcome they get when our members have no union representation protecting their pay equity rights. The hospital is attempting to implement a plan with the employer’s choice of job ratings. We could not agree to these ratings because we believe they are gender-biased against key female job classes, especially RPNs.
The payouts SEIU Healthcare members will receive under the unilateral plan represent only a small fraction of what they would receive through a fair and jointly-negotiated process. For the majority of 2019, Southlake and SEIU Healthcare engaged in a process in which consultants were given a mandate to recommend a pay equity plan. The consultants produced a recommended pay equity plan that resulted in much higher increases for many of our members. Furthermore, Southlake’s unilateral plan reduces the retroactive pay period by three years.
SEIU Healthcare is grieving this violation of our members’ rights and we will continue to demand a fair and jointly negotiated pay equity plan.
The rally was covered by the York Region Metro. Please see the coverage here.