All the staff at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children want for Christmas this year is "a decent pension plan," workers say.
Healthcare workers at SickKids held a rally today to demand their employer provide access to the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) — one that nearly every hospital in Ontario is already part of.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the union for rallying SickKids staff, said its members at the hospital are predominantly women and are “disproportionately racialized.”
The union said the staff's existing pension plan is "poverty-level" and jeopardizes people's financial security in retirement.
Rallying SickKids workers signed a large Christmas card, measuring 3 feet by 4 feet, to give to hospital management bearing the message, "All we want for Christmas is a decent pension plan."
The holiday-themed rally was one of several demonstrations held by the workers at the University Avenue hospital this year over the contentious pension issue.
“Health-care workers at SickKids dedicate their lives to providing extraordinary care under challenging conditions,” Michael Hurley, president of
the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) and CUPE said in a release. "Denying them access to the HOOPP pension plan is not only unfair — it's a failure to recognize their vital contributions."
Hurley continued, “A secure pension isn’t a luxury; it’s a basic right that ensures these workers can retire with dignity."
CUPE said an analysis commissioned by health care unions found HOOPP is far superior to the SickKids’ staff existing pension plan. A worker earning $45,000 at the end of their career with 30 years' service can expect annual payments of $25,560 through HOOPP, about $8,000 more than their current plan, according to CUPE.
The union also said SickKids in October announced it will not be paying into the staff pension plan for another year. The union claimed the hospital has only contributed to the plan twice since 1997.
Workers being the sole contributors to the fund has resulted in a plan that doesn’t offer financial security in retirement, the union said.
Erin Arias, provincial president of the Ontario Nurses' Association described SickKids as a “very well-resourced, world-renowned pediatric hospital" and said there is no excuse to not improve the pension situation for workers.
"My message to SickKids is: be the kind of hospital you want the public to believe you are," Arias said. "Do the right thing for those who devote so much to their work and join HOOPP now.”
CUPE said SickKids is one of only two hospitals in the province that has yet to join HOOPP and instead operates its own plan.
Although SickKids said it is in conversations with HOOPP, staff remain skeptical and claimed the hospital told them the same thing two years ago, according to the union.
CUPE said legally, owing to a surplus in the existing pension plan, SickKids has no obligation to contribute. However, workers have argued it is an ethically dubious choice when the hospital could simply offer a better plan.
