“So we have to pick one, and we’re having to deal with losing half our coworkers and not having the staff we need.” says Langlois. “Which is a fear for everybody as well… The only way we’re going to get overwhelmed is if people don’t take care of each other.”
OPSWA has been inundated with questions from PSWs looking for guidance on things like how to keep their family safe and what their rights as an employee are. Danger pay is also a hot topic, especially in light of the lack of PPE for staff. “While we agree with them, we also know that nurses and doctors are not receiving any danger pay so it’s an interesting battle,” says Ferrier.
“It’s about [recognizing] that we’re taking care of your loved ones when you can’t,” says Langlois. “And this is a generation of people that invented the technology we’re using to help fix the pandemic, so we owe it to ourselves and to them to treat them with dignity, respect and give them as much safe care as we possibly can.”
“If [a personal support worker is] working for one family and that family says they no longer need you, they can’t just easily go and work for another family,” says Barbara Jo Caruso, an immigration lawyer at the Corporate Immigration Law Firm. “The new family would have to file a