Uniting home care workers across Ontario
Home care workers are emerging as critical providers of primary care in Ontario’s health care system. As health care is moving from hospitals into patient’s homes, demand for home care is growing by more than 10 percent every year. Much of that growth is being met by private for-profit home care agencies. Yet very little of this new wealth generation has tricked down to home care workers.
In fact, many frontline home care workers are finding difficult to even afford to do their jobs with the rising cost of gas and insufficient reimbursement for mileage.
That’s why over 5,500 home care workers are loyal to SEIU Local 1 Canada. They enjoy higher pay and benefits, more manageable work schedules, and are better paid for their travel time and expenses than their non-union counterparts.
SEIU Local 1 Canada’s home care members are also working with the Ontario Government to increase funding for the home care sector. SEIU says that the government cannot continue to ‘outsource’ health care from hospitals to private home care agencies without providing sufficient funding to ensure that home care meets at least an acceptable minimum standard of care for patients and clients.
Home care must be incorporated into the province’s public health care system. People’s health depends on it.