Housekeeping service workers at Burnaby Hospital are returning as Fraser Health employees after previously being contracted out to private companies for almost 20 years.
Of 362 total workers being repatriated, 92 belong to Burnaby Hospital, all in housekeeping, and is one of three Fraser Health sites bringing back workers in-house this month.
Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster will see 205 housekeeping staff repatriated, while Port Moody's Eagle Ridge Hospital will see 65.
"With better wages, many workers in this sector will be more economically secure," Gwenda Alexander, a housekeeper at Burnaby Hospital and local Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) chair, whose job recently transferred in-house.
"They may be able to reduce hours or even let go of a second or third job they’ve taken to make ends meet."
In 2018, the provincial government announced its intent to rescind the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act (Bill 29, 2002) and the Health Sector Partnerships Agreement (Bill 94, 2003) in their entirety.
The government said the legislation would restore successorship and common employer protections to health-sector workers and take away the major financial incentive of contract flipping for companies to reduce or avoid unionized labour costs.
Bill 47, known as the Health Sector Statutes Repeal Act, was brought into force through regulation on July 1, 2019.
The province announced on Aug. 31, 2021, that, as of the fall, it would serve notice under the terms of 21 commercial service contracts and start a phased approach to repatriating housekeeping and food-service contracts.
“Bill 47 was an important step in bringing basic fairness to public health care in our province,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said in 2021.
"The repatriation of housekeeping and food services contracts is good for patients, for workers, for the health-care team and for recruiting future health care workers. It treats those who do the essential and life-saving work of keeping our hospitals and facilities clean and ensuring the nutrition of our patients with fairness and dignity. There is always more to do, but I am very proud of these decisions and the value they place on public health care.”
Island Health transferred the first set of workers back in November 2021.
“When housekeepers and dietary workers were contracted to private corporations nearly 20 years ago, they were separated from the rest of the health-care team and pushed to the margins of our health-care system, earning low wages and substandard benefits,” Hospital Employees' Union secretary-business manager Meena Brisard said in a news release.
“Today’s repatriation of health care workers to public sector employment is the result of nearly 20 years of campaigning by our members. It will provide stability and security for these workers, and better care.”
The Hospital Employees' Union estimates that more than 4,000 health care workers will be brought in-house by the end of this year.
