Each Day, Tons of of Ontario Hospital Nurses, PSWs and Different Workers Are Hit, Sexually Assaulted, Racially Attacked, Verbally Harassed, New Ballot Launched Tuesday at Queen’s Park Finds

TORONTO — Bodily violence, sexual assault, racially-motivated assaults in opposition to workers are on the rise in Ontario’s hospitals throughout the COVID pandemic, a brand new ballot of greater than 2300 registered sensible nurses (RPN), private help employees, administrative, cleansing, and different front-line workers, has discovered.

Carried out by the Canadian Union of Public Staff (CUPE) Could 17-24, the findings reveal hospitals as more and more poisonous and harmful workplaces, the place violence in opposition to a workforce who’re 85% feminine is “not solely tolerated, however sadly, largely ignored,” says Sharon Richer, the secretary-treasurer of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE).

This surge in bodily and sexual violence in opposition to ladies and racially motivated assaults comes in opposition to a backdrop of extreme unprecedented staffing shortages and vacancies in our hospitals.

The Premier, new well being minister and the Ontario Hospital Affiliation “can’t look the opposite approach. They can’t be silent. They have to act. That is violence in opposition to ladies who’re on our well being care front-lines,” says Richer.

For the primary time, since CUPE started surveying its giant (90,000 plus) well being sector membership about their experiences with office violence, individuals on this newest ballot have been requested about violent incidents involving weapons – together with, knives, weapons, sticks. The survey reveals a major enhance in the usage of weapons like weapons and knives in opposition to workers.

The portrait of the psychological well being of the workforce that the ballot factors to is a major rationalization for the exodus of well being care employees and for the massive emptiness charges for all occupations in Ontario hospitals.

The alarming findings from CUPE’s provincial ballot will likely be launched by Richer together with Dave Verch, an RPN and first vice-president of OCHU/CUPE, at Queen’s Park (Media Studio), Tuesday July 5, 2022, at 11 a.m.

Over the following few weeks, related polls of Toronto/GTA, Hamilton, Ottawa/japanese Ontario, Sudbury, North Bay, and northern Ontario front-line hospital workers experiences with violence at their worksites throughout the pandemic, will likely be launched.

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Contacts

Stella Yeadon

CUPE Communications

416-559-9300

syeadon@cupe.ca