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Duckett's 'wage freeze' comments further compromise battered morale of Alberta's health-care workforce

EDMONTON – After years of upheavals, recent talk of wage freezes by Alberta Health Services CEO Dr. Stephen Duckett will only serve to further disillusion a weary health-care workforce, warned Health Sciences Association of Alberta President Elisabeth Ballermann.

“We understand the process of negotiation, including pre-bargaining posturing, but Mr. Duckett’s comments are ill-timed and ill-conceived,” said Ballermann, whose union represents close to 20,000 health-care professionals across the province.

“I hear it on a daily basis – more and more health-care workers are taking stress leave or opting for early retirement, tired of being beaten down by this employer. There’s a reason why Alberta’s health-care industry boasts one of the highest rates of stress found in any field. The results from their own (AHS) recent employee survey confirms a growing level of dissatisfaction within their workforce.”

HSAA will survey its membership to determine the union’s bargaining objectives for the next round of negotiations, set to commence in early 2011.

“The province has just moved close to 1,700 EMS and former AADAC employees under its AHS umbrella, which has created a lot of anxiety for some of these valued employees, and now Mr. Duckett is talking about wage freezes? Apparently, AHS has said in the past that they don’t like to negotiate in the media….unless, of course, it’s convenient for them to drop a bomb like this,” stated Ballermann.

Ballermann added: “The bargaining table is the place for this type of discussion.”

For more information contact: 
Elisabeth Ballermann, President, HSAA ­- Cell: (780) 991-1274
Scott Pattison, Communications Officer, HSAA - Cell: (780) 405-4684

HSAA is a union that represents close to 20,000 professional,
technical, support and EMS workers in Alberta’s health-care system.