Bayshore Action Network

Tell Bayshore Home Health: Treat Your Workers Fairly and Provide the Support They Deserve!

Take Action:

Your voice matters! Send a pre-written letter to Alberta’s Minister of Health, Strathmore MLA, and Bayshore management, calling on them to act now and support Bayshore Home Health workers.

By sending this letter, you’re standing with those who make sacrifices to care for Albertans. It only takes a minute, but your action will have a lasting impact.

To view the letter press the button below. To send the letter use the form below.

Support Bayshore Home Health Workers for Fair Treatment

I am writing to add my voice to those of Albertans across our province who are concerned that staff at Bayshore Home Health should get a fair deal from their employer.

These employees deliver an essential service in offering personal care, nursing and dementia care for seniors. They are facing an affordability crisis that has hit our province especially hard, with the costs of food, transportation and shelter all increasing by over 20% in the last year.

In this environment, they are currently expected to pay significant amounts out-of-pocket for multiple costs associated with the basics of doing their jobs, such as travel and supplies. Understaffing, unreasonable time pressures, a lack of fair overtime pay, are all taking their toll on Bayshore employees’ mental health.

To date, their employer has declined to engage constructively in the bargaining process or to address their workers’ needs as they attempt to negotiate a new collective agreement.

When a health care employer cuts corners, client care suffers. The stress on workers cannot help but affect their ability to support their patients, despite their best efforts. Both these workers and their community deserve better. Bayshore is a highly profitable company that operates numerous facilities across Canada; they can more than afford to do right by their employees.

Albertans are urgently calling on the company to return to the bargaining table and to provide their workers with fair travel time pay, better benefits, support for expenses related to healthcare supplies, and fair overtime pay. We are also calling for the company to take a stand for a respectful and safe workplace and to provide their staff with the resources they need.

“The staff at Bayshore Home Health are doing noble and necessary work for seniors in their community,” says President Thomas Hesse of UFCW Local 401. “They are devoted to that work and the health of their clients. Their employer should share that concern.”

“Workers in any sector of the economy deserve fair pay,” adds Richelle Stewart, Secretary-Treasurer at Local 401. “They should not be paying out of pocket for work-related travel, and they should be protected from unreasonable scheduling and exhaustion.”

I hope that you will respond to these workers’ concerns and give them your support in their fight for a fair deal.

Scroll to the bottom of the letter writing tool to submit.

Protect the rights of Bayshore workers and ensure quality care for Albertans. Stand with those who care for our community’s most vulnerable.

Bayshore Home Health workers provide essential care to seniors and other vulnerable individuals in Alberta. However, they face severe challenges: exhaustion from chronic understaffing, paying out of pocket for work-related expenses, enduring client abuse without employer support, and more.

This is unacceptable. When Bayshore workers suffer, client care suffers. Now is the time to stand up for both workers and patients to demand better treatment, working conditions, and fair pay for those who provide vital care.

Why It Matters:

Chronic Understaffing: Workers are being asked to cover appointments without enough time, leading to rushed care for patients.
Inaccurate Schedules: Care providers spend hours fixing schedule issues, leaving them less time to deliver quality care.
Burnout: Bayshore’s failure to provide proper breaks is leading to worker exhaustion and burnout.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses: Employees are forced to pay for travel and essential care supplies, while Bayshore profits.

How You Can Help:

Sign the Letter: Let the government and Bayshore management know that Alberta cares about the well-being of its caregivers.
Share This Campaign: Spread the word on social media using #FairCareBayshore and encourage your community to support this cause.
Stay Informed: Receive updates from UFCW Local 401 and find out how you can continue to support fair treatment for health care workers.

Here’s what Bayshore Workers are saying:

“Together, we can ensure Bayshore workers get the respect and support they deserve—and that their clients receive the best care possible.

I love my job working in the community. I love my clients and treat them like my own family, but it’s been so hard lately.

The scheduler gives me four different clients who live out of town, but they don’t take away the clients I have in town. This makes it impossible to get all my work done. I’m always rushing between clients, and it’s not fair to them or me. They don’t even email us when there’s bad weather or if there’s a dangerous person in the area where our clients live. One time, there was a shooting outside Strathmore, and the police cordoned off an area to search for an armed and dangerous person. Even though our clients lived close by, no one said a word to us.

Trying to make my schedule work without adjusting for other clients or asking co-workers for help is stressing me out. I constantly worry about making it to each client on time and still providing the quality care they deserve. It’s tough to focus when I’m rushing and stressed.

I’ve racked up debt on my credit card because I can’t afford to buy so much gas to make it to all my clients. I’m filling up my car every other day, and they only give us $0.45 per km. That amount hasn’t changed in years, even though inflation has made everything more expensive. We don’t get paid enough for travel time, and they’ve been cutting that down too. My paychecks are always less than I expect, and I never even know if my work hours are accurate. I’m struggling to buy food for my family.

Between the economic challenges and the stress of the job, every day feels overwhelming. My chest tightens, my stomach knots up, and my hands shake nervously. It’s hard to bear.

We need a change.”
Erika Belanger

“I want to start by saying that I love my job and the care I provide to people who really need help. But I also need to talk about the struggles with how Bayshore treats workers, especially with pay and how much work we are given.

It’s been really hard to make ends meet. I’ve had to go to the food bank a lot, and it’s embarrassing when people say I should be making enough money. But when I show them my paycheck, it’s frustrating and humiliating. Every time I have to explain, my chest tightens, my face gets hot, and my hands shake with anger. I can barely support my family because I have to spend money on things like a new tire or an oil change, or other unexpected costs.

It feels like Bayshore is trying to get as much work out of us while paying us as little as possible.

For example, open-ended visits pay only about 60 cents more, even though we constantly have to change our schedules for these clients. This makes it hard on both our time and our other clients.

Travel time has changed since I started. At first, it was 7 km outside of Strathmore, but now it’s 15 km, and we only get paid for one unit of travel between clients. So, if I have a client from 12 to 2, I have to drive from 11:30 to 12. This means we often have to cut time short with one client just to get to the next one, which is really stressful. How can it be safe to drive when we are always stressed and rushed?

I work 6 days a week, and while my schedule says I’m available from 7 AM to 4 PM, most days I work from 6 AM to 5 PM. When do I get extra pay for all those extra hours? Why do we only get 5 sick days a year? Shouldn’t I be earning more for the extra time I’m working?

The way they schedule visits is frustrating too! When I started, visits were 15 minutes, then they changed to 30, then 45. Now, some visits are 55 minutes, and others are 20 minutes. It doesn’t make any sense. Why should I lose 5 minutes of pay just to drive to the next client?

And on top of all this, the cost of gas and car repairs is going up, but we aren’t getting any help with those expenses.

Thank you for reading this. I hope it helps people understand what we’re going through.”
James Bos, HCA

For a Printable version of this webpage, click here.

Bayshore Action Network

Tell Bayshore Home Health: Treat Your Workers Fairly and Provide the Support They Deserve!

Take Action:

Protect the rights of Bayshore workers and ensure quality care for Albertans. Stand with those who care for our community’s most vulnerable.

Why It Matters:

How You Can Help:

Here’s what Bayshore Workers are saying:

Edmonton

Calgary

Red Deer

Lethbridge

Medicine Hat

Brooks

Toll Free

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