Almost 2,500 health-care workers were terminated for not getting a COVID-19 vaccination to work in B.C.’s hospital system, and almost half of them worked in the Interior and Northern health authorities, according to numbers released by the Health Ministry.
The majority — approximately two-thirds — of those fired in four of the five regional health authorities were casual workers, not permanent full- or part-time workers, the numbers show.
The percentage of the workforce who lost jobs ranged from almost four per cent in Interior Health and three per cent in Northern Health, to about one per cent or less in the Island, Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions and in the Provincial Health Services and Providence Health authorities.
The 2,496 health-care workers were terminated after they refused to be vaccinated against COVID, despite a provincial health order requiring anyone working for or contracted to work in B.C.’s health authorities to have their first dose by Nov. 15 and their second dose between four and five weeks later.
The Hospital Employees Union, the largest health-care worker union in B.C. with more than 50,000 members, has grieved 520 of the firings on behalf of its workers, which includes aides, support and janitorial staff.
“It’s a large number, but it’s not unprecedented,” said union spokesman Mike Old.
The 520 grievances will be prioritized and processed individually “to establish a bit of a pattern,” he said.
“What we are grieving is the terminations because it was an unreasonable response to the provincial health order,” he said.
Although the health authorities did not have a choice but to obey the health order, the union says it could have instead placed them on unpaid leave, which would have made the workers eligible for payment of sick credits, possible severance pay or, if the policy is eventually revoked, the chance to get their jobs back.
“If they’re terminated, they have none of these things,” Old said.
The 2,496 terminations included nurses, aides, support staff and others in hospitals, but not physicians and other medical staff who work in private clinics, such as chiropractors, physical therapists, dental hygienists, dentists, naturopaths, psychologists, optometrists, and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners.
The private clinic employees were to have been vaccinated by March 24, but the province last week revised that to allow the various regulatory colleges to provide to the province a list of members’ vaccination status by March 31.
Interior Health lost 908 workers, 540 of them were casual workers; Fraser Health, 469 jobs (272 casual); Island Health, 343 jobs (69 casual); Northern Health 297 jobs (174 casual); Vancouver Coastal Health, 235 jobs (132 casual); PHSA 233 jobs (116 casual); and Providence 11 jobs (eight casual).
Recruitment of health-care workers in B.C. has been a “challenge” and the province is funding education programs, said a health ministry spokeswoman in an email.
“Some health authorities report they have had more new hires than terminations,” she said.
The B.C. Nurses’ Union didn’t respond to a request for comment.
