Add nursing home attendants (NHAs) to the list of Yukon health care workers upset with not receiving bonuses for their labour.

On Monday in the legislature, Yukon Party MLA Yvonne Clarke brought up a letter from NHAs emailed last Friday to Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.

“They wrote in response to — and I quote: ‘… the blatant disregard by the Health minister for the nursing home attendants,’” Clarke said.

“It is clear from this letter that this group of front-line health care workers does not feel appreciated or respected by this minister.”

The latest health care kerfuffle centres around $6 million in signing and retention bonuses handed out to Registered Nurses (RNs), nurse practitioners (NPs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs).

The package, announced on Dec. 1, 2022, included:

• An immediate bonus of $15,000 for RNs and NPs and $8,000
 for LPNs;

• A retention bonus of $15,000 for RNs and NPs and $8,000 for
 LPNs; and

• A signing bonus of $7,500 for new RNs and NPs, and $4,500 for LPNs.

Primary care nurses and primary care nurses in charge working in Yukon communities were to receive $10,000 each.

Clarke added, “The letter outlines that nursing home attendants felt disrespected by the minister’s decision to offer retention bonuses to some employees but not others.

“To quote from the letter again: ‘This is more than a slap on our faces and a kick on our already abused backs. This is why we are beyond hurt that we have been conveniently left out and rudely ignored.’”

Clarke added in her last supplementary question, “Here is what these almost three dozen front-line health workers said in their letter to the minister — and I quote: ‘The morale among all NHAs is at the lowest it has ever been right now. You treated us like we do not matter and are invisible. We are hurt, disheartened, insulted and angry.’”

The letter from the NHAs mentioned that, “At the height of the pandemic, us NHAs also risked our lives while caring for our clients.

“A lot of us had COVID multiple times while providing hands-on care. To say that those were very challenging times is a great understatement, but we knew that our clients needed us then more than ever.”

The letter ended with a call to action to McPhee.

“We encourage the Health minister to put your words into action. Show us that you actually understand and appreciate what we do.

“We are part of the nursing team. We are important. We need to be seen and heard.”

Speaking to reporters after question period Monday, McPhee said, “I’m happy to hear that they have concerns, in that we should know what they are. We should be able to sit down with them.

“We should be able to build on the relationships we have with frontline health care workers … we have heard before that the nursing bonuses have left some other folks concerned.

“We also know that through collective agreements that there are bonuses for other medical professionals that have been organized through collective agreement, discussions, and I look forward to sitting down and to gathering the information I need to respond to the letter,” McPhee added.

She was asked if she has any intention of giving the NHA’s bonuses as well.

McPhee replied, “I have to look at what the actual facts are and I don’t really have an answer to that right now. Sorry.”

Opposition Leader Currie Dixon was asked if he believes NHAs should receive bonuses.

“I think that they deserve a thoughtful response to their letter,” he replied.

“First of all, they’ve made it clear that it’s not even just the money that they feel aggrieved about, it’s the lack of respect and appreciation.

“And so I think that when you make a decision to provide a bonus, in this case to some employees, but not others, you’re inviting controversy, you’re inviting disputes amongst those people, and it just creates division.”

The key issue, Dixon said, “is that this is a group of people that are really important in our health care system, and they don’t feel supported, they don’t feel engaged and, quite frankly, they feel disrespected by the minister.”

He added that McPhee “has a lot of work to do to repair those relationships.”

NDP Leader Kate White had a strong opinion about whether NHAs should receive bonuses.

“I think so many people should get bonuses. I think that the decision that the Liberals took by giving some folks within health care bonuses and not others, was a grave mistake,” White said.

“And whether they recognize it or not, their actions led people to feel like they were not important or valued.

“Every single cog in that system is valued. It has to be, or it doesn’t work.”

Nursing home attendants “are the reason why you don’t need a full ward of nurses,” the NDP leader added.

‘They’re the folks who the nurses direct to do the work. Without them, it would mean you’d need an entire floor of nurses. They are an incredibly important part of the system.”