$10K bonuses for Nunavut nurses forced Iqaluit lab technologists to quit

Key takeaways: 

• Bonuses were handed to Nunavut’s nurses to stop the shutdowns of community health centres.
• Five Iqaluit lab technologists left in the fall, after being rejected a $10,000 retention bonus proposed to Nunavut’s nurses, according to the organization representing them. 

Nunavut nurses got $10K bonuses and technologists resign: 

The absolute straw ere five of Iqaluit’s laboratory technologists quit in the fall, was a lack of appreciation — and a $10,000 bonus — by the government of Nunavut for their work, according to the organization which empowers them.

The previous week, The Globe and Mail registered five of Iqaluit’s eight lab technologists quit in November and December.

The laboratory crew at the Qikiqtani General Hospital is liable for processing COVID-19 test outcomes in the Qikiqtaaluk province, among other things. Territory-wide testing was shortened lately to aid free up other critical testing services, health officials stated on Jan. 6. There are three technologists presently working at the lab, with another on the way.

Also read: Nunavut soothing some COVID-19 rules beginning Monday

The Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science (CSMLS) depicts some 14,000 lab technologists across Canada. 

The organization supplied CBC News with a letter the hospital’s laboratory team sent to deputy Health minister Colleen Stockley in September, soon after Nunavut’s health department declared a $10,000 retention bonus for the territory’s nurses.

At the moment, Stockley described the bonus as an “expression of gratitude” for the nurses’ work during the pandemic, according to a memo from Sept. 14, also delivered to CBC News by the CSMLS. Source – cbc.ca