Be Protected.  Be Supported.
Essential services in New Brunswick’s nursing homes.

The Government of New Brunswick is committed to ensuring nursing home residents are protected and receive the quality, consistent care they need.

Seniors living in nursing homes are among the most fragile in the province.  They need quality, full-time care and support on a daily or even hourly basis.

As a government, we want to ensure the care of nursing home residents will not be affected by a potential strike, slowdown or lockout situation in the future.

As with hospitals, nursing homes deliver a specialized level of care. Yet nursing home care and support workers are not currently listed as an essential service in New Brunswick. In a legal strike situation, that would mean a significant majority of nursing home care and support workers could walk off the job, putting nursing home residents at risk within a very short period of time.

That’s why the Province is introducing legislation to designate nursing home care and support workers an essential service: To protect the health and safety of seniors living in nursing homes.

This legislation will begin a process for the employer and bargaining agent to negotiate essential services designation levels, ensuring a reasonable number of workers remain on the job to deliver the support and services nursing home residents need in the event of a labour disruption. 

These changes do not interfere with unions’ right to bargain. It is about protecting the care and safety of nursing home residents and recognizing the critical nature of the service nursing home care and support workers provide.

Designating a minimum number of support workers will provide a stable, positive and fair environment for nursing home employees and offers an alternative to back-to-work legislation during any future job action.

The legislation would apply to an estimated 3,125 unionized nursing-home care and support workers. The majority of nursing-home care and support workers are licensed practical nurses and resident attendants who provide personal care services to nursing home residents.

Why now? 

Introducing essential services legislation is a priority as the New Brunswick Nursing Home Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), through the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions, work to avoid a labour dispute.

CUPE rejected the association’s offer of wage increases of 19 per cent over four years when asked to accept a two-year wage freeze to take effect at the end of the agreement. 

In recognition of current fiscal realities and to minimize public sector job loss, the province’s recent budget introduced a mandatory two-year wage freeze for all government employees.  The wage freeze was extended to include the nursing home sector.

The government agreed to honour public sector union contracts, provided each union accepted a two-year wage freeze to take effect at the end of their existing agreements.         

Responding to government’s call to work together during these challenging economic times, two of the three unions in the nursing home sector accepted the wage freeze and reached agreements with the New Brunswick Nursing Home Association.

Government remains hopeful the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions and New Brunswick Nursing Home Association will find common ground and reach an agreement.

In the meantime, designating a minimum number of care and support workers will help ensure residents receive the quality, consistent care they need in nursing homes.