Posted on September 29, 2025
Health care is a dangerous place to work.
Injury rates in health care, including physical and psychological injuries, are higher than in any other sector or profession, according to Manitoba Workers Compensation Board statistics. Despite the risks, we still show up for our patients, clients, and residents every day.
The ongoing and recent safety incidents across the province have made clear that our employers are not living up to their responsibilities to keep us safe at work. I want to update our members on steps the MAHCP team is taking to hold employers accountable, and ensure they take concrete action to implement better safety measures.
Earlier this month, we put Shared Health on formal notice that they are in violation of Manitoba’s Workplace Safety & Health Act.
To be clear, the employer is breaking the law by failing to ensure functioning safety and health committees are in place for all sites, and that those committees are appropriately staffed, trained, and resourced. These committees and reporting are required by law for a reason. Further, they are failing to track and report violent incidents, as required by legislation. These failures have and continue to put staff and patients at risk.
We have now launched a new Safety & Health section on www.mahcp.ca where members can:
- Learn about employer and employee obligations under the Workplace Safety & Health Act;
- Access safety and health resources;
- See a timeline of the union’s actions related to safety & health throughout 2024 and 2025.
A future phase of this online section will:
- Help us identify where workplace safety & health committees don’t exist or aren’t functioning properly; and
- Enable members to volunteer for safety & health committees where needed.
Shared Health leadership has acknowledged that chronic understaffing contributes to unsafe workplaces, but the action they’re taking to address understaffing is nowhere near adequate. That is why MAHCP continues to push for new retention, recruitment, and training measures, including full implementation of the new contracts.
Unfortunately, Shared Health is not alone in safety & health deficiencies. Our team believes they are systemic, and we will be filing grievances and taking other steps as needed.
We will hold all employers accountable to their obligations to keep you safe at work. Please stay tuned for updates as we proceed in this critical work.
In solidarity,
Jason Linklater, MAHCP President