‘It’s going to bankrupt health care’: Spending on temp agency nurses up more than 550% since pre-pandemic at one Toronto hospital network
A temp agency nurse who is paid $11.50 an hour while helping out at a local hospital has been getting paid $3 an hour since the pandemic began, CBC News has learned. The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not allowed to speak to a CBC staff member on the phone, said her employer, a company called Toronto Rehabilitation Services, Inc., has been giving employees like her $3 an hour while they work at a hospital in Toronto. It was not clear how many temp agency nurses are working at Toronto-area hospitals. The nurse did not respond to subsequent requests for clarification.
Nurses who work on a temp agency are usually required to work more than 40 hours per week and cannot be fired as long as their contract with the temp agency remains in effect.
A group of temp agency nurses has complained to CBC News about not getting paid the same amount as nurse-practitioners, who are also working on a temp agency. Nurse practitioners, whose job is to provide healthcare in the home as well as for the person with the condition they’re treating, are usually paid less and can be fired without severance.
Health Canada will be paying temp agency nurses the same rate as nurse practitioners under an expanded pandemic coverage program being rolled out.
The government’s expanded coverage program was first announced in February and pays temp agency nurses and nurse practitioners up to $300 an hour for nursing on COVID-19-related care.
The government said in its February 24 budget that an expanded health coverage program was necessary to support the response to COVID-19 and the government began implementing the program on March 3. That expanded program requires every temporary worker to receive wages equal to or higher than $300 an hour. Temporary workers who earn more than $300 an hour can receive a wage of up to $500 for two days of work a week above their normal rate and receive another day of pay for each successive day they work above that amount.
The expanded coverage program does not apply to temporary workers who work for a local hospital in Toronto and also have been paid more than $300 an hour.
On August 16, CBC News reported that a nurse