Dear Bill Walker,
I would like to take a minute to tell you my concerns as a PSW.
I believe that I work at job that has historically been over worked in a high paced, understaffed, underpaid and disrespected profession.
I have worked as a PSW for about 21 years and have worked at the same privately owned for profit LTC facility for 16 years and these are some things I have found:
1. My base rate of pay is currently $19.61 per hour. From 2007 until 2019, we have received an average raise of $0.26 per hour per year. Almost all of those raises came through arbitration. We have been working without a contract and have been in negotiations since March 31, 2019. We will likely be heading towards another trip through arbitration to get our next pay increase. As the arbitration process has historically ruled against us we are anticipating another $0.26 a year raise. I believe the arbitration process and the ruling governments have really made it clear over the years that we were not that important.
2. We have had a staff to resident ratio of 1 staff to 10 or 12 residents. That means that we have had approximately 6 minutes per resident to wake them, take them to the toilet, wash and dress them and have them ready for breakfast. We are expected to have the dining room filled and be ready to feed residents by 8 o’clock. That is a time schedule that does not leave any room for treating the resident like they are not on an assembly line. We do our best to treat them with kindness, compassion and dignity while rushing them at a terrible speed so that we are not called to task for our tardiness. It is a massive challenge to remain calm and compassionate under that pressure.
3. I have seen a revolving door of PSW staff coming and going. The work is never fully completed, never good enough and both extremely physically and mentally challenging for very little pay and no respect.
4. The work pace is such that injuries are very common. I personally have had work related shoulder and knee injuries that required physiotherapy and a work related back injury that kept me off the floor for about 4 weeks. Shoulder and rotator cuff injuries are very common and several staff has needed to go on stress leave over the years because of the mental toll this job takes.
5. We have not been allowed to take holidays since March and have had to follow many pandemic precautions both at work and outside of work to keep our residents safe. This we have done gladly because no one wants to bring Covid-19 into the building and be responsible for an outbreak or a death.
I would like to see Premier Ford consider doing the following to help our industry stop the bleeding of PSWs and to keep our older population safe and treated with the dignity, respect and the time they deserve:
1. Legislate a minimum base wage for PSW’s that must at minimum increase with the cost of living each year.
2. Legislate a mandatory ratio of 1 staff for maximum of 6 residents.
3. Allow us to take some much needed holiday time.
4. Ensure that the arbitration system runs fairly and is impartial.
5. Eliminate the redundant and cumbersome charting that we must do.
Our union CLAC has worked very hard on our behalf and has lobbied the ruling governments for years trying to help us. Last year they launched a massive on line initiative to create awareness about who we are and what our job issues are. This basically went unnoticed by the public, the owners and our ruling government. Then came Covid 19 and everything they tried to draw attention to came to light in a very big and very horrible way. Please hear us now.
I know that this letter is a little lengthy but I thank you for taking the time to read it and hopefully consider what a PSW really needs. We do our best for our residents and we do the job for them and certainly not for the money. Please help us put them first.
Thank you,
Cindy Moore
