A bustling job market in the St. John's area is draining home-care workers, and a labour shortage won't improve as long as wages remain well below national standards, an agency owner warns.

Most home care workers in Newfoundland and Labrador earn little more than minimum wage.
(CBC)

"On an average week to two-week basis, I would suspect we're losing three to four home support workers, and … we're hiring probably one, maybe two, every two weeks," said Phyllis Marie Healey, human resources manager of Caregivers, a home care company in St. John's.

"We can't replace the ones we are losing."

The issue is wages. Even fast-food restaurants pay more than what Newfoundland and Labrador employers can offer in home care, an industry largely subsidized by the provincial government.

The issue of home care was pushed to the fore last week by the dilemma of Patrick and Shirley Connors, a St. John's couple in their late 70s who say they may have to declare bankruptcy in order to qualify for government-run care.

A financial assessment found that the couple, with a monthly combined income of $2,100, would have pay more than half of that for home care. Health Minister Ross Wiseman admitted the financial assessment process is flawed, but said government won't have a fix in place for months.

The plight of Patrick Connors and his disabled wife has drawn attention to the issue of home care.
(CBC)

While the Connors' case directed public attention to the problems of qualifying for home care, another problem is emerging: a dire shortage of workers ready to do it.

Healey said the company has had to break the news to prospective clients that it cannot offer the care they have requested.

Helen Codner, who had worked with Caregivers, traded in that job for a job working with the company contracted to clean the provincial legislature.

Even though her new job pays minimum wage — currently $7.50 per hour, with no benefits — she considers it a step up because her hours are now reliable and her stress level is reduced.

"I used to go to work at 9 o'clock in the morning and sometimes I mightn't get home till 8 o'clock at night. I used to go from one end of town to the other," Codner told CBC News.

"I'd say I'd [spend] $20 every two days, running around, for $8.04 an hour."

Tangle of interests

In Newfoundland and Labrador, home care is a tangle of public and private interests.

Companies receive about $13 per hour per client, which leaves a maximum rate of pay of $9.14 for people who often care for the elderly and the disabled.

'Before you pack your suitcase, let me tell you the rate of pay for home support in Newfoundland.'—What manager Phyllis Marie Healey tells prospective workers

Donna Burke said workers must often cover their own bus fares, which can add up with trips to several clients in a single day. Burke and Healey said while even retailers are starting to add dental and other benefits to lure increasingly hard-to-find workers, home-care agencies have had stagnating wages.

"I have actually [received] phone calls from people in Alberta who wish to come home and they say, 'I'm an experienced home support worker,' and I always tell them, 'Before you pack your suitcase, let me tell you the rate of pay for home support in Newfoundland,'" Healey said.

"And when I say that, they almost gasp, and they say, 'Well, I can't come home and work for that rate of pay when I'm making $17 an hour here doing the same work.' " 

Health Minister Ross Wiseman said government is 're-evaluating' what home care workers should be paid.
(CBC)

Wiseman said the government is well aware of the labour crunch in home care, and is planning to solve it. That, however, will not be that easy, even though the provincial government is awash in surplus revenues.

"What should they be paid? How should they be paid? That's something that we're currently now re-evaluating," Wiseman said.

"To be able to peg for you today what is a reasonable number, we're not advanced enough in our strategy development to share that with you today."

Burke, though, said her industry is falling behind because of stagnant pay rates and working conditions that expect much of the workers.

No success yet, says union

The Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees has begun organizing home care workers, but NAPE president Carol Furlong admits the union has not had much of an impact on the quality of life of workers.

"We have reached the first agreement for most of these workers. We have taken baby steps at this point," Furlong said.

"Are we satisfied with wages? Absolutely not. Are we satisfied with the benefits? Absolutely not."

Tina Noftall, who looks after a woman with dementia and a host of other ailments, said many home care workers have difficult working lives.

"Most people who do home care have two jobs — 40 hours with one and probably 15 with the other," said Noftall, who said home care workers apply for work at nursing homes, where the rates of pay are significantly higher.

"I have applied, and didn't get a call back. But one of my friends got a call back and she's doing a lot less than I do and she's making more than me."