PARO for Residents demanding improved working conditions

This petition is to spur action from PARO to demand from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (the ministry) improvement in our working conditions in 4 key ways and to stop all forms of systemic exploitation:  

1.     End all 24 hour shifts or receive a minimum of $50/hour for working any extra time past 12 hours.  

2.     A significant increase in salary.  

3.     A drastic shift in the culture around residency.  

4.     Removing all registration fees from Universities.    

We the undersigned are petitioning PARO to IMMEDIATELY take action to achieve these 4 improvements by WHATEVER means necessary up to and including strike or strike type actions.

     Twenty four hour shifts are of little value to residents and represent the most obvious way the ministry exploit residents. Recently, the ministry offered $50 an hour for extra work performed during the pandemic. This shows what the value of work has been appraised at by the ministry. The fact that a resident can work a 24 hour shift on a Saturday and only receive the stipend renumeration of $145.87 represents the grossest form of exploitation. Not only does the resident perform grueling work but the post call day is lost on a Sunday. There is minuscule learning value between the hours 0000-0500. The argument that this is done for learning purposes is null and void. These shift represent nothing other than a reliance on learners to help keep the healthcare system operating at times when staffing are most difficult.

      The salary structure of the PARO contract is outdated and does not represent appropriate pay for hours worked or for skilled care provided by residents.  The ministry pays significantly higher wages for comparable work done by other healthcare professionals. The most direct comparison is with nurse practitioners. Residents and nurse practitioners often perform identical duties seeing patients, completing consults, writing prescriptions, and reviewing with staff, however the average salary of the nurse practitioner in Ontario is about $50/hr or $110,000- 130,000 per year. This is nearly twice what a resident is paid despite the fact that in many cases residents can work up to 20-30 hours a week more. Again the ministry systematically exploits residents by leveraging learning programs against residents to force agreement to these terms. This MUST end. Residents need to be paid appropriately for the work done now.

      The culture around residency, and in healthcare, is unhealthy at its best and toxic at its worst. Why can’t residency be an enjoyable experience? Why does it have to be the most difficult experience of our careers and, in many cases, lives?

      Residents’ relationship with the universities are strained as the institutions have a less relevant role in training and add significant additional work to residents lives. The validity of the work should also be reviewed but as a starting point, residents should not be asked to pay the $800 annual registration fee. This cost should be absorbed by the ministry or the academic institutions. Further, anything that is not deemed critically essential to residency training needs to be removed including quality assurance projects, research projects, and online learning modules. More time needs to be allocated to independent study of medicine in the area residents are practicing so these skills can be honed.

      PARO is the union that is tasked with protecting the membership from exploitation. They collect significant fees every year for this. They have gone into battle for us during this pandemic already successful obtaining pandemic pay. We must call on them again because, unfortunately, the ministry and governmental employers will never willingly offer to improve our working circumstances. The ministry has proven that they will never look out for residents best interest. Residents ARE a valuable, integral part of the healthcare system in Ontario. PARO can look to the precedence set by from the union for the residence in the province of Quebec who had to undergo a similar struggle in 2018.  That strike was quickly resolved with 24 hour shifts be absolved and salary being increased. These demands are reasonable and fair but the ministry will never willingly agree to any improvements unless they are pressured.

Ontario Physician Resident    Contact the author of the petition