‘It’s going to bankrupt health care’: Spending on temp agency nurses up more than 550% since pre-pandemic at one Toronto hospital network
Nurses at the Toronto East General Hospital, Toronto’s largest public hospital, have seen their wages rise steadily for the last decade.
The hospital’s temp agency nurse staff, on the other hand, have seen their wages increase by more than 500 per cent since 2009.
A study by Toronto Star journalist John Rektor, titled “How the temp agency boom is costing Toronto hospitals,” reveals how the temp agency boom in healthcare staffing has affected pay for the nurses and administrative staff working at the Toronto East General Hospital, Toronto’s largest public hospital.
Rektor’s article, which is based on data provided by Ontario’s labour ministry (which administers the Labour Standards and Safety Board, the agency that investigates allegations of unsafe and unsuitable workplaces), highlights three major findings:
The temp agency staff at Toronto East General Hospital saw a steady increase in wages for the last two decades, with a sharp increase in 2010.
There was a huge leap in wages for agency nurse staff from 2009 to the end of 2012, a time during which the hospital implemented new “pay to win” policies with temp agencies, which forced the nurses to take the lower pay to prevent them from leaving the staff for lower wages.
The staff’s wage increases did not match the increases in the temp agency pay for the same time periods.
“We cannot stand on a pedestal in front of our patients, and say: ‘That is how our staffing is,’” Rektor said. “We need to improve and we can’t have the wages go up and the people coming in go down.”
The temp agency staff at Toronto East General Hospital saw a steady increase in wages for the last two decades, with a sharp increase in 2010