{"id":170927,"date":"2023-08-03T14:46:28","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T18:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=170927"},"modified":"2023-08-03T14:46:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T18:46:28","slug":"telehealth-associates-release-video-addressing-low-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/telehealth-associates-release-video-addressing-low-wages\/","title":{"rendered":"Telehealth associates release video addressing low wages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nova Scotia's 811 telehealth associates released <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xtmim2b7KFU\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a video<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on Tuesday to speak out on their staff shortages and how it is affecting their workplace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The video from telehealth workers is calling on the Government of Nova Scotia to reopen their current contract to address their low wages. The contract is set to expire on Oct. 24.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt's to bring awareness to the public on what our workers are facing day in and day out, as they take phone calls from across Nova Scotia,\u201d Vice President of Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) Hugh Gillis says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Telehealth workers are responsible for 24-hour calls from Nova Scotians seeking medical care. From there, the nurses working for the telehealth 811 line can inform the caller on the next steps or transfer the caller to 911 in emergency situations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe calls are gut wrenching. The working conditions are not ideal. Some of our folks are working 24 hours a day, on very, very low wages,\u201d Gillis says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 811 workers are currently the lowest paid health care workers in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt's hard to keep people working there for $18 an hour,\u201d Gillis says. \u201cThe wages are very low, and it's hard to recruit and retain staff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The NSGEU represents nearly 36,000 workers in the province who provide public services to Nova Scotians. The 17 associates at telehealth are among those represented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When other opportunities come up with higher wages telehealth workers are inclined to take them, Gillis says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With around 152,000 Nova Scotians on the family doctor waitlist, calls to telehealth are increasing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe're a province of a million people, our population continues to grow. We're having new people move to our province, we are having new immigrants, refugees,\u201d Gillis says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to the story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nova Scotia&#8217;s 811 telehealth associates released a video on Tuesday to speak out on their staff shortages and how it is affecting their workplace. The video from telehealth workers is calling on the Government of Nova Scotia to reopen their current contract to address their low wages. The contract is set to expire on Oct.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":170935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223],"tags":[28965,22617,19954,19955,28964],"radio":[13058],"origine":[274,300,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170927"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171018,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170927\/revisions\/171018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170927"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=170927"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=170927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}