Health P.E.I. offering workers extra cash to cover summer vacations

Health P.E.I. is offering some health-care workers more money to take on additional shifts this summer, especially during evenings, weekends and holidays.

It's hoped the move will make it easier for other health workers to take vacation this summer. 

But union leaders are concerned it may create even more problems.

Barbara Brookins, president of the P.E.I. Nurses' Union, is hopeful the new incentives will help. Her union was first to strike a deal with Health P.E.I. on Friday. 

The new incentives could see members receiving time-and-a-half or even double-time pay for shifts that are deemed "critical." 

Brookins said a lot of nurses are frustrated because they already had summer vacation plans booked, then were denied their leave requests. 

"It's a little late to the game," Brookins said in an interview with CBC News.

"We're hopeful that ... if people pick up one or two shifts, it could be the difference of me getting my vacation or not getting my vacation."  

Health P.E.I. missed the deadline to post vacation schedules by June 1 because of what it described as an "unclear staffing picture for the summer."

In a statement to CBC News, it said it began working with the unions in March to come up with a plan to "help stabilize care while allowing Health P.E.I. to grant as much vacation as possible, as soon as possible." 

Health P.E.I. said it hopes to finalize agreements with other unions soon. 

Karen Jackson, president of the Union of Public Sector Employees (UPSE), is fearful that the incentives proposed by Health P.E.I. may cause even more problems.  

She said Health P.E.I. offered similar incentives last year, and it prompted some people to work less.  

"It incentivised a part-time and casual workforce, many people dropped from full-time in order to be paid the incentive, so it actually had the opposite effect for our members," Jackson said.