Personal care home workers picket in Winnipeg to decry Extendicare payroll problems

Dozens of health-care support workers who work at Extendicare personal care homes in Manitoba picketed in Winnipeg on Wednesday, calling on their employer to fix ongoing issues with its third-party payroll system.

Dietary staff, health-care aides and housekeepers were among those who raised their voices and waved flags in the rain on their one-day job action outside Extendicare's Tuxedo Villa personal care home.

May Quinto, a longtime health-care aide at the Corydon Avenue location and union leader, said she hears from members about compensation errors every paycheque.

"They are frustrated," said Quinto, who is president of Canadian Union of Public Employees' Local 2180, which represents workers at the care home.

With every paycheque, she said, "they need to go file a payroll inquiry, because they're missing some hours of their pay."

"There are some unpaid premiums," and "it took us a ... year to be able to get a back pay for that," said Quinto.

CUPE says its members have also reported incorrect calculations for benefits, including leave and sick days, along with incorrect seniority lists.

The union represents about 1,200 health-care support workers at Extendicare's eight personal care homes in Manitoba. The for-profit provider operates two locations in Brandon and six in Winnipeg. 

Extendicare adopted the Workday payroll system at those locations in 2023, Quinto said. In her 21 years working at the Corydon care home, she didn't experience challenges with the system until after the providers switched, she said.

In an email to CBC News, an Extendicare spokesperson apologized to workers affected by any discrepancies and acknowledged their frustration, although the spokesperson said base pay for regular hours worked had not been affected.

Extendicare adopted the new human resources and payroll system to better capture the more than 250 collective agreements of its workers and to modernize how it supports them, the spokesperson said.

The company has created a dedicated team to deal with mistakes and is prioritizing compensation issues by offering regular support meetings at its personal care homes and by working with the union, according to the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, CUPE's members are calling on Extendicare to hire a third-party auditor to look into the discrepancies and make sure workers are paid properly.

Quinto says dealing with the issues on a case-by-case basis has left workers exasperated.

"Two years is an unacceptable time frame for such systemic issues to remain unresolved," she said. 

The workers "gave their hearts and hard hours … to this job, so they should not be fighting for what they are owed."

CUPE has filed over 40 complaints about the payroll system in Manitoba, the union said in a news release. Some of those grievances affect more than 100 workers who haven't gotten the retro payments they were owed, the release said.

The union says employees at some of Extendicare's facilities in Ontario have also picketed over similar concerns.