As your union, MAHCP advocates for compliance with safety and health legislation across the public healthcare system, and for adequate resources to support workers in the event of an incident, accident, or injury.
The Manitoba Federation of Labour’s 2024 Health & Safety Report Card reported that while health care’s time-loss injury rate declined from 2022 to 2023 (from 5.1 to 4.1), the sector continues to have the highest in the province, nearly 50% higher than the provincial average and much higher than sectors such as manufacturing and natural resources. Health care also accounts for about one-third of all workplace violence injuries.
Safety & Health is a critical issue in health care, and feelings of being unsafe are a detriment to recruitment and retention. MAHCP is taking significant steps outside of your Collective Agreement to advance safety & health priorities, to advocate for improvements throughout healthcare facilities in Manitoba, and to redress violations under the Act.
2024
- MAHCP Labour Relations Officers request information from their portfolio facilities and programs about existing WS&H committees (committees are required by legislation in any organization with 20 or more employees). Many programs and employee groups are still without established committees, including all ERS. This isn’t just poor practice and a lack of commitment to employee and patient safety; in many cases, it contravenes Manitoba’s Workplace Safety & Health Act.
- As new WS&H committees are formed or existing committees announce employee representative vacancies, MAHCP Labour Relations Officers put out Expressions of Interest to our members to encourage allied health professionals to step forward and join these important committees.
- MAHCP begins the work necessary to form the Provincial Psychological Safety & Health Committee bargained with the last Central Table Collective Agreement. We’ve developed Terms of Reference for this committee’s work, and we are determining the structure and selection process for its membership.
- December 2024: MAHCP files Reports of Unsafe Work with Manitoba’s Workplace Safety & Health Branch stemming from multiple reports of unsafe work conditions throughout the province, from dangerous situations of working alone to inadequate safety training for supervisors.
2025
Throughout 2025, our LRO team continues to collect information about and grieve workplace safety violations. Meanwhile, serious safety incidents continue throughout Manitoba’s healthcare system, leading to Institutional Safety Officer positions, restricted access points, and AI weapons scanners at HSC; members at CancerCare Manitoba, Women’s Health Clinic, and St. Boniface Hospital bringing specific safety concerns to our attention; MNU’s grey-listing of HSC and Thompson General Hospital.
- April 2025: In an effort to push Shared Health to assemble appropriate WS&H committees for our 700+ Emergency Response Services members,MAHCP puts out an Expression of Interest form to ERS in rural and Northern regions/zones and on specialized teams. As of November 2025, Shared Health has yet to come to the table to work with us in assembling these committees.
- July 2025: Following a series of highly publicized, violent attacks occurring at and around the HSC campus, HSC’s Safety & Health Committee, which includes two MAHCP allied health members, call on Shared Health to take immediate action at the site by implementing of a series of 18 recommendations.
- July 2025: Following the grey-listing of HSC, MAHCP President Jason Linklater joins an ad-hoc committee formed to advance HSC safety priorities. This committee, made HSC’s Chief Executive Officer, and which includes Winnipeg Police Service, union leadership, and others. Curiously, the Workplace Safety & Health branch does not have a member on this committee.
- September 2025: MAHCP sends formal notice of HSC’s violations under the Workplace Safety & Health Act to Shared Health’s Interim President & Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Chris Christodoulou, copying the Minister of Labour and Immigration and the Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-term Care. This letter is MAHCP’s first step in a policy grievance we’ve filed in response to Shared Health’s negligence in complying with the Act. As Manitoba’s largest employer of laboratory and diagnostic services, Emergency Response Services, and allied health care professionals in hospitals, clinics, community, and long-term care, Shared Health is responsible for the safety of 18,000 employees as well as patients. Shared Health is neglecting its duties under the Act and failing to support proper safety for employees and patients, not just at HSC, but in healthcare facilities across the province.
- October 2025: MAHCP receives a written response from Shared Health.
- November 2025: MAHCP appoints Labour Relations Officer and MASH chair, Cory Szczepanski, into the role of Safety & Health Specialist to provide dedicated safety & health support to MAHCP members. In this role, Cory is responsible for increasing awareness of rights to safety, and will coach employee members of committees on duties and responsibilities. He will also advocate with employers, government, and the WS&H branch for solutions to widespread safety & health concerns and violations in the healthcare sector.
- November 2025: MNU nurses vote to grey-list the Thompson General Hospital, recommending against employment at the site.
- November 2025: MAHCP alerts the Workplace Safety & Health Branch that we have begun legal action to compel WSH to enforce the Act against Shared Health Manitoba (Shared Health).