Union decries low wages at Family Visions

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This article was published 01/02/2024 (673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Substandard wages and a reduction of statutory holidays are being offered to support workers at a Brandon non-profit organization that helps individuals with intellectual disabilities, says Kyle Ross, the president of the union representing the staff.

The 100 support workers, members of the Manitoba Government Employees Union (MGEU), assist the individuals in 18 group home settings in the Wheat City, helping them integrate into the community.

They are employed by Family Visions and have been working with an expired contract since March 2023. The union and the organization are currently going through the bargaining process, said Ross.

“They’re offering just above minimum wage; they’re not even coming close to the commitment that the previous government made. They’re coming back with a number, just substantially lower,” he said.

“We have to consider if people are working with the most vulnerable people in society, you want to be able to hire good people to perform those services for that difficult job. And we know this place has high turnover. I can’t imagine there are a lot of long-term employees because the wages are substandard.”

Laurie Jackson, executive director of Family Visions, told the Sun she can’t comment on what’s being talked about at the table with the union.

“I can’t discuss the negotiations, we’re in bargaining with the union. I can certainly tell you that this sector, our sector, has been for a long time underfunded, in terms of wages,” Jackson said.

The sector got a big boost last year from the previous Progressive Conservative government.

In March 2023, the PCs made what it called an historic investment of $104 million to support disability services and increase wages for front-line staff, according to a news release.

The investment was directed to the Community Living disABILITY Services (CLDS) program — which provides funding to 93 agencies across the province, including Family Visions.

Of that $104 million, $79.7 million was to be used to increase the baseline funded hourly wage rate to $19 for direct service workers.

A month after the government’s announcement, in April 2023, MGEU reached out to the provincial government and received confirmation that five organizations in the province were included in the funding for disability sector wages.

Along with Family Visions, there were two organizations in Winnipeg, one in Dauphin and one in Ste. Rose du Lac.

On Wednesday, the union told the Sun that three of the five organizations have passed the funding they received onto their employees, and a fourth employer has made a commitment to do so.

The exception, the union said, was Family Visions, which has not passed the funding onto its support workers.

“I can’t speak to what they did or didn’t receive,” said MGEU’s Ross.

“But I think the intent of the government’s action was that the money was to be passed on to the workers, so they could make $19 an hour.”

Speaking from her office at Family Visions, Jackson said the funding is based on client numbers.

“We didn’t all of a sudden get a windfall. We get it monthly basis, per person. So, we’re not sitting on a nest egg that we got last April,” said Jackson.

Jackson added that she’s “putting her heart into this bargaining session” and that when the government announced the wage baseline of $19 an hour, it didn’t consider what long-term employees are paid, compared to someone who just started their job.

In addition to wages, the union said another issue that employees have with Family Visions is how it’s clawing back four statutory holidays.

Family Visions has asked for a conciliator to step into the negotiating process, which is a neutral party that tries to bring the parties closer together to try to get a deal.

MGEU used a conciliator in the past, during negotiations with Manitoba Public Insurance and Manitoba’s Liquor Mart employees, which ultimately came to agreements with their employers, said Ross.

“You get what you put in, to be honest with you. If both sides are willing to move, you can probably get resolved out of conciliation, but both parties have to be engaged and willing, and in the realm of reality as well.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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