PEI Nurses ratify new agreement with Health PEI

In a vote this week, members of the P.E.I. Nurses’ Union have ratified a new deal with Health PEI.  The vote was held from noon Wednesday through Noon on Thursday, and members voted 83.4 per cent in favour of the agreement.  Nurses on the Island had been working without a collective agreement for more than two years.  In announcing the tentative agreement, the Nurses Union had indicated that it believed the agreement would give members some good reasons to make a commitment to work with Health PEI as Permanent Employees, to work in Full-Time positions, and to work in 24/7 and on-call services too. It also said the agreement provides much needed recognition of Employees’ prior years of experience working as RNs, and will make PEI’s Nurse Practitioners among the highest paid in Canada. The hope is that this agreement will help Health PEI in its ongoing recruitment efforts – for both new graduates & experienced RNs & Nurse Practitioners – and alleviate some of the burden of short-staffing.