PrintUNA grievance seeks immediate clarity on application of Chief Medical Officer of Health Order
United Nurses of Alberta has filed a province-wide grievance seeking immediate clarity from Alberta Health Services on the how it intends to apply Chief Medical Officer of Health Order 10-2020, which restricts employee movement among worksites during the COVID-19 emergency.
With the order set to take effect tomorrow, UNA is extremely concerned the result could be confusion and staff shortages without clear articulation of how CMOH Order 10-2020 applies to employees.
Alberta Health Services is misinterpreting the order by applying it to sites not named in the order and not applying it to some sites that are named, said UNA Labour Relations Director David Harrigan. “The order appears to be intended to apply only to nursing homes, but doesn’t account for the fact that most acute care hospitals are also legally classified as nursing homes.”
UNA has been seeking clarity for several days and repeated requests to AHS and the Ministry of Health have not received a response, he said.
“We have some 30,000 members who will be affected by this order tomorrow morning and right now none of them know what the rules will be regarding where they can work,” Harrigan said. “The grievance seeks those answers immediately so that our members can go to work knowing they are in compliance with the Chief Medical Officer of Health’s order.”
A copy of the grievance is included with this news release.
