Health Sciences Centre terminates screener positions, plans to use private security instead

Term employees that control access through entry points at Winnipeg's downtown hospital will soon be out of a job.

About 32 Health Sciences Centre employees were give four weeks' notice that their contracts were coming to an end, according to a Shared Health spokesperson.

The last day for the employees is Thursday. They will be replaced by private security.

The screener position was introduced in 2020 in response to COVID-19 and the need for screening of visitors, patients and health-care workers for symptoms and exposure to the virus at entry points at health-care facilities in the province.

"As COVID-19 has evolved, so have provincial screening requirements. As a result, entry to health-care facilities was expanded in the fall of 2022 to allow for additional visitation and to remove the active screening (questions about symptoms and exposure) process. With the conclusion of active screening, the requirement for dedicated screening personnel has also ended," the spokesperson said in an email.

Shared Health says private security will work with existing security staff at HSC, acting as an initial point of contact for anyone entering the hospital.

Debbie Boissonneault, the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 204, said screeners were told the news at the outset of the holiday season.

"Merry Christmas, you'll be losing your job come Jan. 19."

Boissonneault believes the number of individuals affected by this decision is closer to 35.

She fears the switch to private security could jeopardize the health and safety of staff and patients and HSC.

"I truly believe if people aren't sanitizing and they're not taking proper protocol and coming in still when they are not feeling well, it could jeopardize COVID spreading more," Boissonneault said.

She doesn't understand why the province is hiring private security at HSC, since the hospital already has a security presence.

"We have in-house security that are unionized employees, public employees that are trained within the building. We don't need an outsourced company to come in. And if they're taking over the jobs of the screeners, they should not have let the screeners go," Boissonneault said.

The union plans to file a grievance if private security guards assume the role of screeners.

More screening jobs expected to be cut: Boissonneault

Health Sciences Centre isn't the first health-care facility in the city to do away with COVID-19 screeners.

Deer Lodge Centre in St. James scrapped its screeners in September.

Screeners at the personal care home were given about 48 hours of notice that their jobs would be terminated, Boissonneault said.

"It's a personal care home and we know how hard personal care homes were hit. Yes, it has a hospital side and it has a personal-care home side, but they don't even have someone there saying, 'please take a mask,'" she said.

"People should know to make sure that they're not coming sick."

Deer Lodge declared COVID-19 outbreaks on Nov. 25 and again this past Tuesday.

Boissonneault said more terminations of screeners at Winnipeg hospitals are coming later this week.

"We're hearing most entry-points screeners jobs will be ending in March, but the province has not declared that COVID is over — as much as they want to say it's over," she said.

"COVID is still around as per the employer, but they're deleting the support staff that are helping with COVID."