B.C. hiring back hospital cleaners, food services workers almost 2 decades after privatization push

Vancouver -

Almost two decades after the B.C. government laid off thousands of hospital support workers, pushing them into lower-paid corporate contracts, the province is repatriating their positions.

Health Minister Adrian Dix announced Monday that the NDP is beginning a phased process of bringing approximately 4,000 hospital cleaners and food services staff back under the government's employment.

"The province and the health authorities will serve notice under the terms of 21 commercial service contracts to start to repatriate housekeeping and food service contracts," Dix said. "This move will improve wages, working conditions, job security and stability."

The majority of the transition will take place before the end of March 2022, the minister said.

The hospital support workers were forced from their positions after former premier Gordon Campbell's BC Liberal government passed Bill 29, the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act, back in January 2002.

The legislation allowed B.C. to break its union agreements and contract out the workers' jobs to the private sector.

Meena Brisard, secretary business manager of the Hospital Employees' Union, described the impact on the affected employees as "devastating."

"Their work was contracted out to corporations who rehired many of these workers at half the wages with no pension and very few benefits," Brisard said. "Today these workers still earn less than they did 20 years ago."

The overwhelming majority of the economic impact was shouldered by women, who made up more than four in five of the affected workers, according to Brisard. She said people of colour were disproportionately impacted as well. 

CTV News reached out to the BC Liberals, but the party declined to comment on the announcement.