'We sacrificed a lot over the pandemic:' Former nurses at Markham-Stouffville Hospital call for retro pay

Former non-unionized employees at another GTA hospital are speaking out after they say they have been denied retro payments for time worked during the pandemic.

Former non-unionized employees at another GTA hospital are speaking out after they say they have been denied retro payments for time worked during the pandemic.

In recent months, retro payments have gone out to staff at hospitals across the province after it was ruled that Bill 124, which capped wage increases for many public sector employees at one per cent per year over a three-year period, was unconstitutional.

Arbitrated settlements have been reached with various unions representing hospital workers, which has resulted in current and former employees seeing thousands of dollars in back pay for time worked for the years that the bill was in effect.

Compensation for non-union employees is now at the discretion of individual hospitals, many of which have decided only to pay current, active non-union employees retro pay while refusing to pay former non-union staff any extra compensation for time worked in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Only a handful of hospitals in the province have registered nurses (RNs) who are not unionized, including SickKids Hospital, which initially opted to exclude former staff from retro payments but reversed that decision last week.

The about-face came after former nurses at SickKids spoke out against the hospital, calling the decision to deny them retro payments “insulting.”

RNs at hospitals represented by the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA), the union representing 68,000 nurses and health-care workers across the province, are eligible for retro payments for time worked during that three-year period regardless of their employment status.