'Grey listing' could discourage Manitoba nurses from taking jobs at Health Sciences Centre

Manitoba nurses are set to vote this week on whether to declare the Health Sciences Centre such a dangerous workplace that nurses should be discouraged from working there until conditions change.

"It's not done lightly and it's not done without lots of discussion prior to it," Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said on Wednesday, as union members began voting on whether to give Manitoba's largest hospital what's referred to as a "grey listing" designation.

"Grey listing is actually utilized when an employer is failing to keep our members safe, may be violating the collective agreement repeatedly, and is not providing a safe workplace," said Jackson.

Should the vote pass, the union will begin advising nurses not to take jobs at HSC because of safety concerns, she said.

"What it basically does is say to nurses, 'You may not want to apply for a job at this facility until this employer meets the recommendations that have been provided,'" she said.

There have been discussions at the union since 2020 about the possibility of giving HSC the designation, according to Jackson.

She said several recent disturbing incidents at the Winnipeg hospital, including a July 2 incident that saw two nurses sexually assaulted — one in a tunnel and another on their way to the parkade — has now pushed the union to call for a vote.

"We're at a point now where we've had lots of discussions with the employer," she said. "We filed a grievance on safety that was arbitrated, and the arbitrator was very clear that the employer was not mitigating risk for staff in that building. 

"And we filed another grievance since, it's still sitting waiting for the employer to respond to, and the members just decided, 'this is enough.' This is the straw that broke the camel's back."

Voting on the grey listing proposal has already begun and will continue until Friday at 4 p.m.

Along with discouraging employees from working there, the union will also ask HSC to mandate swipe cards to access hospital tunnels, ensure secure entrances are staffed, and create an early warning system to alert staff to possible security incidents, should the vote pass.

"Once the board approves the grey listing, it belongs to the work site," Jackson said. "So the work site will decide when it's time to take action."

Jackson said that after the July 2 assaults, the union received complaints that hospital staff weren't immediately warned about what had happened.

"We received many, many messages from nurses that were very upset, not just because of the sexual assault in the building … but the fact that the employer failed to notify staff in the building until well over 12 hours later that this incident had taken place," she said.

"So no one knew whether the perpetrator was still in the tunnels in the building, and staff were very upset."

Working with union to address concerns: Shared Health

Jackson also accused HSC of "downplaying" the assaults, and referring to them as "inappropriate touching or groping."

"It truly was a sexual assault," she said. "You need to call it what it is."

Union members "just felt that this employer is no longer interested in keeping nurses, staff members, patients, and members of the public safe," said Jackson. "And it's time to flex, and make sure this employer understands that we're not going to stand for this."

A vote in favour of grey listing would not affect patient care at HSC, and nurses already working there will continue to show up for their scheduled shifts, she said.

The union has grey listed facilities just five times, according to Jackson, the most recent being the Dauphin Regional Health Centre back in 2007. 

In a statement sent on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Shared Health said that the provincial health organization is aware of the vote.

Shared Health and the union "have been in contact regarding the potential for grey listing, and are working collaboratively to identify solutions that address safety concerns" while still meeting the needs of patients and staff, the spokesperson said.  

The spokesperson also wrote that "work is actively ongoing to strengthen security and support measures."