Registered Nurses’ Union President Yvette Coffey met today with Premier Andrew Furey and Health Minister Tom Osborne to discuss ongoing concerns for nurses in the health care system.

RNU members in the Western Zone were mandated to work overtime shifts last week after the contract with Canadian Health Labs for the provision of travel nurses came to an end.

NL Health Services today confirmed that contract won’t be renewed and the contract with CHL in the Central Zone comes to an end at the end of next month—although there is no word yet on whether or not that contract will be renewed.

RNU President Yvette Coffey says her 30 minute meeting centered on the implementation of their collective agreement and the overreliance on private agencies in the delivery of health care.

She says some of her members have been denied incentives of their collective agreement because they missed work due to illness. She says it should come as no surprise that that would have a negative impact on the workplace.

The same reluctance to implement the terms of their collective agreement “fairly and fully” is also affecting Nurse Practitioners. Coffey also outlined the frustration felt over a lack of progress and direction from government on their Job Evaluation Project, despite negotiating a salary grid that will bring nurse practitioners closure to being on par with their Atlantic counterparts.

Coffey says to date there is “no clear path for them to access that parity.”