Nursing home staff rally across N.S. for better pay, more workers

Long-term care workers rallied at sites around Nova Scotia Tuesday to protest their working conditions and call for immediate action from the provincial government. 

Their demands — for higher wages and larger staffing complements — have become common refrains from a sector that is stretched thin.

Lisa Walters, a licensed practical nurse at St. Vincent's Nursing Home in Halifax, said there are sometimes two staff on duty to care for more than 30 residents.

"The staff are crying, the residents are crying. They're burning out like crazy," Walters said.

"We're asking for help ... we're asking to see a change in care. Don't forget about long-term care. Everybody is going to get old, we're all going to be seniors."

Walters highlighted a longstanding call for the province to legislate 4.1 hours of daily care per resident, as well as better wages, especially for continuing care assistants who make up the bulk of the long-term care workforce. CCAs are paid, on average, $17 to $19 an hour.

Walters was one of a few dozen people who rallied outside St. Vincent's.

Also at the rally was Louise Riley, a CCA and chairperson of CUPE's long-term care committee.

"It's not an easy job working in a nursing home," said Riley, who has been a CCA for 40 years. "It's a lovely job, the residents are wonderful, but we need more staff to give the residents what they deserve."

Riley and several others at the rally said CCAs should make at least $25 an hour. When campaigning for this year's federal election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would push the provinces to make $25 an hour the minimum rate for that type of work.

Some nursing homes in Nova Scotia have recently closed to new admissions because they don't have enough continuing care assistants and nursing staff. One home in Berwick, N.S., recently asked families to pitch in more to help with resident care.

St. Vincent's executive director, Angela Berrette, said her facility is in the same boat as others. 

"Staffing is at a critical state at most nursing homes in the province. St. Vincent's struggles to meet our minimum number of staff that we'd like to have on any given day," she said.

Berrette said she shares the views of her staff who are calling for better wages and higher staffing ratios.