SickKids reverses decision on retro payments, says employees 'past and present' will now be compensated

SickKids has reversed its decision to deny retro pay to former employees who worked at the hospital during the pandemic, saying it will now ensure that employees “past and present” receive compensation.

The about-face comes after former nurses spoke out about the decision, telling CP24.com that they felt “betrayed” and “insulted” that the hospital was choosing not to provide retro pay to staff members who no longer work at the downtown Toronto facility.

“SickKids considered many factors as we determined which staff would be eligible for retro pay. Our focus at the time was on managing extremely scarce resources, and as such, we misjudged the implications of our decisions on our most important asset – our people, both past and present,” the hospital’s statement, released on Thursday evening, read.

“On reflection, we should have included staff who have left SickKids in our retro lump sum payments. We are going to fix this and will be taking steps to calculate payments and communicating details over the coming weeks to staff who have left SickKids.”

Registered nurse Zoe Griese said shortly after she left her job at SickKids in May, she learned that the hospital would be providing extra compensation to employees who worked there in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The announcement came after an arbitrator ruled that Ontario hospital nurses represented by the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) were entitled to retro payments for time worked during the three-year period when the province’s Bill 124 was in effect.

Bill 124, which was enacted in 2019, capped wage increases for the province’s nurses and some other public sector employees at one per cent a year for a three-year period. Last November, the bill was ruled unconstitutional, a victory many nurses in the province celebrated.

While SickKids nurses are not represented by the ONA, the hospital indicated that it too planned to voluntarily provide retro payments to employees who worked during that time.

Griese, who worked at SickKids from 2018 to 2023, said she contacted the human resources department at SickKids multiple times to inquire about the payment.

“They continued to email back. They said they don’t have information but they will communicate when they do,” she told CP24.com on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Griese said she learned that the hospital had made the decision to exclude former employees and some retirees from the payout.

“I spent four years giving my absolute all to that hospital. I gave so much of my life and my time. I sacrificed time with my family and friends to spend with those kids and their families and to give everything really to SickKids,” she said prior to the hospital’s reversal.

“I was a very dedicated employee… I advocated for them and now I just feel really betrayed.”

Earlier this week, SickKids released a statement to CP24.com, saying that it opted to provide the retro payments to employees due to its belief in “market-competitive compensation” and “recognizing the valued contributions of our staff” during a “challenging few years.”

“All eligible staff who are active staff members on Sept. 29, 2023 (the retro payment date) and who were eligible for the annual increase of 1% on June 29, 2020, June 28, 2021, and July 4, 2022, will receive retro pay for that respective year,” the statement read.

“Eligible staff who are recent retirees – retiring on or after May 10, 2023, the date SickKids announced eligible staff would be receiving a retroactive lump sum payment -- will receive the retroactive lump sum payment. For staff represented by unions, compensation is determined via the bargaining process. Physicians and Executives are excluded from the retroactive payment.”

The spokesperson said at the time that while they “appreciate the efforts of former staff members,” the retro payment is for “eligible active staff and recent retirees.”

Her payment, Griese said, would amount to between $5,000 and $6,000.

“$5,000 is a lot of money. That could pay off student loans or just help to keep me surviving,” she said.

While SickKids nurses are not represented by the ONA or any other union, ONA previously announced that nurses who worked during that three-year period are eligible for retro payments regardless of their current employment status. The union told CP24.com that former or retired ONA members who worked during that time can reach out to the hospital where they worked to arrange payment.

Speaking to CP24.com on Wednesday, Doris Grinspun, the CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO), said she found it “absurd” that SickKids would decide to exclude former employees from the retro payments.

“Yes, those nurses are not unionized but they worked during the heat of the pandemic… some of them even have PTSD because of the pandemic and the tremendous pressures on staffing that they had at the hospital,” she said.

She added that she failed to “see the rationale” of providing retro payments to current employees and not others who worked “in the same conditions.”

“I am very surprised. I think it is very short-sighted,” Grinspun said. “It is a departure from their usual approach.”

The provincial president of the ONA, Erin Ariss, told CP24.com that SickKids is one of a few hospitals in the province where registered nurses are not represented by ONA and as a result, SickKids is not required to provide retro payments to staff.

“These workers at SickKids worked during the pandemic and in my opinion, they are entitled to these wages but we do not represent them so unfortunately it isn’t up to the ONA how SickKids compensates their nurses,” she said.

Lindsay Peltsch, a former SickKids nurse who left the hospital after suffering from burnout during the pandemic, said she was very surprised to learn that the hospital, which she said historically has followed the lead of the union, had initially decided not to compensate former employees.

“It devalues what we bring,” she told CP24.com.

“They have built their organization on the care and the culture that we live and we action everyday, and it is so disrespectful… you are telling the nurses that worked during that time that it didn’t matter.”

Peltsch, who left the hospital at the end of 2021 after more than a decade as an employee, said the pandemic took a huge emotional toll on the staff, who often acted as surrogate families for sick children when COVID policies prevented their parents from being at their bedside.

“This decision single-handedly slaps every single nurse in the face,” she said.

Peltsch said she truly loved the time that she spent working for SickKids, which she described as an “incredible place to work.” She said after she resigned, the CEO of the hospital actually reached out to her to speak about her experience.

“That exchange… was actually a really special exchange for me, for my recovery,” she said.

She said the hospital’s actions regarding retro pay “cheapens” the positive experiences she had at the hospital for all of the years she worked there.

“We feel really betrayed,” she said. “We always felt like SickKids was different.”