Abbey Therapeutic Services has handed layoff notices to 200 workers in the Dufferin Care Centre in Coquitlam, the Beacon Hill Villa in Victoria and Nanaimo's Seniors Village.
In a letter to employees last week, ATS said "there will be no paychecks forthcoming ... Benefits have been cancelled."
Retirement concepts, which runs the care homes and subcontracted services to ATS, has agreed to pay the workers to maintain continuity of care - for now.
"We don't think Retirement Concepts will take over for good," spokesperson Chris Freimond said. "The most likely scenario is another service provider, another contractor comes in."
But Retirement Concepts, which has already faced investigations by the health ministry for more than a dozen abuse cases, has routinely subcontracted care services -- a process the hospital employees union calls "contract flipping."
"With contract flipping, what happens is workers lose their jobs, they lose their union. So the whole process begins again, creating enormous instability and uncertainty," union spokesperson Margi Blamey said. "And the seniors feel that too."
NDP health critic Adrian Dix blames the provincial government for privatizing seniors care in the first place.
"Gordon Campbell passed a law in 2003. The impact is to allow this very practice. It repeatedly happens and damages seniors care," Dix said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger
