More housekeeping workers are returning in-person to Burnaby health-care facilities after they were previously contracted out to private companies for almost 20 years.
This month, a total of 474 housekeeping service workers will be repatriated to 18 Fraser Health sites, five of which are at Burnaby's Fellburn Care Centre.
In 2018, the province 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.”
In April of this year, 92 housekeeping service workers returned in-house at Burnaby Hospital.
“Everyone working in our health care system is vital to ensuring people in B.C. receive quality care," Burnaby-Lougheed MLA Katrina Chen said in a release on Tuesday (July 14).
"Housekeeping workers are key to keeping our health care system running smoothly and bringing them back in-house as Fraser Health employees is an important part of showing how valued and respected they are."
The Hospital Employees' Union estimates that more than 4,000 health care workers will be brought in-house by the end of 2022.
