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SASKATCHEWAN: On May 19th the province will be reopening a variety of health care services that were closed due to the public health emergency and the public health order. CUPE Local 5430 is concerned that there will not be enough staff to properly respond to needs.

“Cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, and new outbreaks are emerging,” said Sandra Seitz, CUPE Local 5430 president. “Now is not the time to be resuming services and taking staff away from the areas in which they are needed during this pandemic.”

Many of the staff at provincial testing and assessment centres were redeployed from services that were closed or slowed down. If these services open, CUPE is very concerned that the resources to address the needs of COVID-19 will be significantly reduced.

During this COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption that it has caused, the Health Care Provider Unions want the Government to recognize the healthcare care workers who are working tirelessly and with personal risk to themselves and their families, to return those in their care to their families. This letter was sent to Premier Moe by the Provider Unions today asking for that recognition.

Read more - Letter to Premier - Pandemic Pay

TOPIC: COVID 19 and the impacts on health care workers

When: Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 6:50 p.m.

We know that many members have questions about the recent LOU on redeployment and cohorting, as well as ongoing concerns about the impact COVID-19 is having on health care members. As such, we are organizing a telephone town hall on this topic.

During the town hall, you will be able to ask questions of your CUPE Local 5430 Executive and put forward your comments.

All you have to do to participate is make sure we have a current phone number for you and pick up the phone when we call you.

If you would like to submit questions in advance of the town hall you can do so by sending your questions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We hope you’re able to join us on May 7, 2020 for this important discussion.

Relief Workers Accessing the Labour Pool

The labour pool is defined as follows:

The Labour Pool is a pool of employees that have either volunteered or been assigned from work areas subject to a service slow down or closure for the purposes of redeployment to another work area that requires additional resources in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Labour Pool is subject to the terms of the letter of understanding agreed to between the Employer and the Unions (CUPE, HSAS, SEIU-West, SGEU, SUN).

Over the last few years the employer took the position that there was a deadline for people to get better when they were placed on the disability re-employment list. The disability re-employment list is where our members get placed when they are too ill to work in any capacity. The employer took the position that if these people were not better within one year, their relationship with the employer was over. CUPE disagreed and fought back.

We went to arbitration on the difference, and we won.

The disability re-employment process is described in Article 31.08 of the collective agreement, and this is how it should work:

Dear CUPE Local 5430 member:

Important information: there was some miscommunication/lack of communication between the employer and the unions on the home care workers’ exemption in the public health order. This means that we provided incorrect information on the town hall call Tuesday night.

Here is the clarification we received from the employer yesterday: Home care staff are not exempted from being cohorted if they have a position in a long-term care environment. As such, if they are cohorted to the long-term care home, they will not work in home care. Similarly, if they are assigned to work in home care, they cannot work shifts in long-term care. The exemption for home care was to allow them to go into multiple environments throughout a home care shift as part of their regular daily service requirements. Members can’t work their jobs or shifts in long-term care if they are cohorted to home care, but they can go into facilities or personal care homes to provide service to their home care clients who happen to live in those facilities or homes.

We provided the information that we had and apologize for any confusion that was created.

Important information: there was some miscommunication/lack of communication between the Employer and the Unions on the home care workers exemption in the public health order. This means that we provided incorrect information on the town hall call last night. We will correct this in the question and answer document that we will post later today.

Here is the clarification we received from the Employer today: Home care staff are not exempted from being cohorted if they have a position in a LTC environment.  As such, if they are cohorted to the LTC home, they will not work in Home Care.  Similarly, if they are assigned to work in Home Care they cannot work shifts in LTC.  The Exemption for Home Care was to allow them to go into multiple environments throughout a home care shift as part of their regular daily service requirements. Members can’t work their jobs or shifts in LTC if they are cohorted in home care, but they can go into facilities or personal care homes to provide service to their home care clients who happen to live in those facilities or homes.

We provided the information that we had and apologize for any confusion that was created.