Crisis worker shortage having far-reaching impact

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on May 2, 2023.

Herald photo by Delon Shurtz Members and supporters of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees rally outside the Lethbridge Provincial Building to protest worker shortages and low worker-client ratios across the province, especially in healthcare.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

An AUPE rally in Lethbridge Monday may not have seen the level of participation as past protests, but not because of a lack of support by the union’s members.

Union vice-president Darren Graham knew that members would support the rally, but he expected numbers to be down a little, which actually highlights the very problems the union is fighting.

“One of our big problems, and what we’re trying to raise a bit of awareness here today, is the fact that we have this crisis going on across all public facilities, all public services,” Graham said.

That crisis is worker shortages and the far-reaching impact those have on workers as well as the people they are serving, particularly in healthcare.

“It’s basically that whole issue needing to actually have work ratios in place.”

The need for proper worker-patient ratios is especially felt in long-term-care facilities, Graham said, despite efforts by the union to convince the government to make changes critical to healthcare.

“We have staffing ratios for kindergarten, and yet we don’t have staffing ratios for long-term care.”

That means people living in healthcare facilities are not getting the proper care, and the problem is only compounded when a worker must take time off because of illness, like COVID, or even burnout.

“We’re starting to see the effects of what happened during COVID-19,” Graham said.

Although worker shortages in healthcare have recently been highlighted, the problem extends to virtually the entire public sector in the province.

Graham said more people are trying to retire early or are finding work in jobs that are less demanding, even if it pays less money, “because they are just burning out.”

That compounds the problem of worker shortages in the public sector, however, and while the government’s response has been to hire “agency staff,” they’re often not qualified or trained, which means the regular staff has to take the time to train them, all while performing their own tasks.

That creates workload issues once again for the regular staff, and does nothing to address the issue of staff shortages, Graham points out.

“It’s not going to get better.”

Staff shortages have also been caused by government cuts in training at education facilities, which makes it harder for people to gain basic knowledge to enter certain jobs.

Graham said the government keeps promising to fix the shortages and healthcare issues by extending services into rural areas. But he asks if the government can’t staff urban operating areas, how is it going to staff rural areas?

Courthouses are also struggling with staff shortages, and are forced to train long-term existing staff in other areas to spread the workload out because there is 40-50 per cent less staff. In Lethbridge, for example, clerks are being temporarily brought in from courts in other cities to fill vacancies.

Graham said the government is not providing opportunities for training and clerks are burning out.

The government, Graham added, does not seem to have a plan to make things better, except to privatize everything. But that won’t make things better because there’s still only a certain number of workers, and that needs to increase.

“When they cut education funding a few years ago, and drove up tuition fees, and reduced programs being offered at some of these schools, that has a compounding effect. We’re seeing that now.”

Graham said systems and workers all over the province are breaking, and that frightens him.

The union is asking Albertans to demand transparency on the delivery of services; accountability for their tax dollars; legislation to provide care ratios; client-worker care ratios; and workload processes to ensure the most vulnerable in society have access to the serves they need.

“We also need Albertans to demand that access to the delivery of services be universal, provided in a timely manner, delivered by a properly trained, qualified publicly accountable workforces.”

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