KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – The headline in the NSGEU/CUPE press release reads “Dozens of hospital employees across Nova Scotia lose jobs to American-owned company just before the holidays”.
This is a move from a government who has spent the last 8 months encouraging us to buy local, and support Nova Scotians in their time of need. The release continues:
“A special thank you to our health care heroes for the holidays, Nova Scotia Health (NSH) has announced their plan to contract out the work done by 91 hospital employees from the NSH to a private, American-owned company. The NSGEU informed the provincial government of the NSH’s plan to contract out this work, but the government has allowed it to proceed.
“This is an insult to these health care workers who have always been helping to keep our health care system secure and operational throughout this pandemic,” said NSGEU President Jason MacLean.
“The work our members do is incredibly valuable, and it is not in Nova Scotians’ best interest to allow a private company to take over our citizens’ health records management,” said CUPE Nova Scotia President Nan McFadgen.
This a move from a government who praises the dedication of our health care workers but is laying off the 91 employees who work in Health Information Services (HIS), scanning and archiving medical records.
The majority of the members affected work in rural parts of the province. Eighty-four of the workers affected are women. Once again the Liberal government is turning its back on workers and local communities with job losses which will hurt local economies. Low-paying, non-union jobs are not going to help rebuild the economy especially in rural Nova Scotia.
NSH plans to contract out this work to Iron Mountain, which is a multinational corporation headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices in Burnside. This amounts to just further erosion of the public service as we have seen all along under the McNeil Liberals.
See also: Government communication folks should communicate, not create confusion
Danny Cavanagh is president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour
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They should be careful. The last time I accessed my medical records through the now defunct “My Health”, I ended up with all the medical records of another person. I was able to read all of it. His name, every medical condition, etc. Soon after, they stopped using it. Did the Ontario company have a serious breech?