Elderly residents of a supportive living home in Lacombe will no longer lose their regular caregivers after the private company taking over operations decided not to lay off unionized workers.
"We have got an agreement with Christenson Developments that indeed the workers will not be out of a job come Feb 1," said Elisabeth Ballermann, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta [HSAA].
"They will have the choice of remaining with Christenson Developments and that Christenson will assume the collective agreement."
Christenson owns The Manor at Royal Oak Village, which offers independent and supportive living to seniors. The non-profit Good Samaritan Society ran operations at the centre for seven years.
When Christenson Developments won government permission to add 88 more units, the non-profit group decided that the size of the program would be too onerous to manage.
The society agreed to turn over operations to Christenson Developments on the condition that existing workers kept their jobs.
But Kathy Daly from the Good Samaritan Society said last week that Christenson decided not to keep the employees.
Ballermann said ads then appeared on the Internet seeking replacement workers at a lower pay rate, which prompted her to file a complaint with the labour board.
The company has now changed its mind and is hiring the employees who work there now.
The news comes as a relief to residents who have become accustomed to their regular caregivers. One woman, who asked not to be identified, feared that her relative would be mistreated.
"She hasn't been sleeping well at all," the woman said. "She's worried sick."
The woman wonders why it took a complaint to the labour board for the matter to be resolved.
"I think they should have talked that out at the beginning," she said.
Ballermann says anyone who chooses not to continue working for Christenson Developments will receive severance pay.
Employees have until Thursday to decide what they want to do.
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