HSA in the news

Times Colonist (Victoria) Community service workers move their rotating strike action to Victoria Tuesday, with pickets slated to go up across the city. People who help adults with developmental disabilities, new immigrants and other vulnerable individuals will walk off the job to press their demands for higher wages and better working conditions. Community Living Victoria is expected to be behind...

Alaska Highway News As flu season begins, the recent decision to require health care workers to either take the vaccine or wear a mask is being challenged by the Health Sciences Association (HSA). The unpopular measure has divided medical professionals in the Peace Region. "We're being asked to put something in our body (and) we have no idea where it's...

Surrey North Delta Leader Byline: Jeff Nagel Health care workers say a government order that they get the flu shot or else wear a mask this flu season amounts to a violation of their personal privacy. The Health Sciences Association of B.C. has filed a grievance on behalf of its members, who include various lab and imaging technologists, pharmacists and...

National Post Despite accusations that they are "killers of the sick and elderly," a growing number of B.C. health-care workers are resisting a mandatory flu shot, arguing that it is an issue of personal choice. And now, a union representing thousands of health-care workers in the province, is telling them they have a right to opt out, even if that...

timescolonist.com Byline: Cindy E. Harnett B.C. nurses have voted in favour of a two-year contract negotiated last month with the Health Employers' Association of B.C. More than 32,000 registered nurses and psychiatric nurses across B.C. voted almost 85 per cent to ratify a contract that will boost their pay and replace nurses on holiday or sick leave. In the first...

Times Colonist (Victoria) CORRECTION: (From Times Colonist, October 4, 2012) NURSES' WORK WEEK BOOSTED 90 MINUTES: A tentative agreement between B.C. nurses and the province would boost nurses' work week by 90 minutes beginning April 1, as well as provide the equivalent of 2,125 more nurses across the province by 2016 by increasing total straight-time nursing hours by more than...

Vancouver Sun The B.C. government has reached a tentative two-year agreement with the province's nurses, Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid announced Wednesday. "This is the result of some very hard work on both sides of the table," MacDiarmid said Wednesday as she announced the tentative deal. "Within the two-year agreement we have come to there is a modest compensation increase and...

Vancouver Sun The B.C. Nurses' Union wants to scrap an unpopular workplace attendance scheme imposed by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and an independent arbitrator has been called in to mediate the dispute. The four-year-old attendance and wellness program was implemented to increase productivity among health care workers by cutting down on sick days, but nurses maintain they are being...

Vancouver Sun By ManoriRavindran, Vancouver Sun August 14, 2012 Since July 24,three non-elective heart surgeries at Vancouver General Hospital have had to bepostponed due to a shortage of heart-lung machine technicians, orperfusionists. The in-patients, all with potentially life-threateningconditions, required urgent surgeries, but their operations had to berescheduled because the only perfusionist available was called in for a doublelung transplant that...

Chilliwack Progress Byline: Robert Freeman Chilliwack was urged at a Tuesday night "town hall" meeting to push back against the pending closure of the rehab unit at Chilliwack General Hospital. Chilliwack-Hope MLA Gwen O'Mahony, who organized the meeting, gamely vowed to carry a call to cancel the closure until all the community's concerns are addressed to Health Minister Mike de...