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Thursday, July 09, 2009
NDP demands whistle-blower legislation for health workers. What about teachers?
An Alberta Health Services document threatens health care professionals with termination if they criticize mismanagement, NDP MLA Rachel Notley said today.
She called the recently released AHS Code of Conduct an intimidating document that aims to deter workers from exposing failures in the health care system.
“Health care workers who are critical of government cuts are being told that if they don’t shut up, they’ll be fired,” Notley said.
The offending passages in the AHS Code of Conduct include rules governing public statements:
If you are approached by the news media to provide information and/or interviews concerning Alberta Health Services’ practices or operations, immediately refer all such requests to the Communications Department.
As a representative of Alberta Health Services, which you are by virtue of your role within the organization, it is important to exercise caution at all times and to choose your words carefully when engaging in any form of public speaking. You must not breach confidentiality or privacy regarding any patient, employee or business information.
If you write for publication or in any other public forum, you must ensure that any Alberta Health Services patient, employee or business information is not disclosed and that confidential documents are not made available to unauthorized persons.
Do the restrictions on speaking to the media about AHS "operations" or “business information” constitute political censorship? Notley says they do.
“The government needs to immediately draft whistle-blower legislation allow these people to freely express their opinions,” demanded Notley.
Other passages in the code of conduct that are of concern to Notley are these:
If your personal conduct could reasonably result in valid allegations or criticism from our fellow Albertans, then the conduct is questionable and may be improper.
...
Conduct that adversely affects the interests of Alberta Health Services (…) could result in disciplinary action, even dismissal or termination.
According to the NDP, criticisms over cuts to health care including hiring freezes, MRI tests cancellations, and the closures of long term care and public laboratory facilities are appearing more often in newspaper editorials and at public forums.
“Just last month at an NDP healthcare town hall in Lethbridge, we heard from a nurse who feared repercussions for speaking out,” Notley said. “This Code of Conduct is her fears come true.”
Health care workers are not the only provincial employees governed by professional codes of conduct. Teachers in the province as subject to the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) code of conduct which prohibits public criticism of teachers and demands “service” to the union:
16. The teacher recognizes the duty to protest through proper channels administrative policies and practices which the teacher cannot in conscience accept; and further recognizes that if administration by consent fails, the administrator must adopt a position of authority.
...
22. The teacher accepts that service to the Association is a professional responsibility.
“[S]ervice to the Association” means teachers can not express anti-union or anti-public education views, and critics of the public education status quo are effectively prohibited from teaching in the province.
Will the NDP and former labour lawyer Notley challenge the ATA to remove these restrictions on teachers?
(Picture: Rachel Notley)
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by Western Standard on July 9, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Why don't they just swear an oath, and sign it in blood...if they can find some?
The people in the Health Care business are, I'm sure, doing their best. Its the State System that is corrupt at its core.
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-07-09 7:24:42 PM
This is nothing new concerning civil servants, although I point out this fact not as a defence or justification. Long before many of you here were born I recall a case during Trudeau's regime, although I do not recall the exact year. It had to do with a federal civil servant in Kingston, Ontario who had written a letter to the editor in a newspaper criticising the official languages act and the introduction of the metric system. His job had nothing to do with either, so he was expressing his personal disagreement with both. He was fired and took his case to the courts. It went all the way and the court upheld his dismissal basically stating that as a federal civil servant one did not have the right to criticise any government policy or program. I was astounded at the final court decision, since the message was clear that we already lacked freedom of expression.
Posted by: Alain | 2009-07-09 8:15:38 PM
This should rais a red flag to the NDP about too much government control. Kind of ironic.
Posted by: howard roark | 2009-07-09 8:32:48 PM
Given that the average nursing station or school staff lounge is the equivalent of NDP election headquarters 24/7/365, I can see why she would want to protect her foot soldiers "right" to politicize the work place. They used to be considered professionals and acted accordingly. Big (public sector) labour has put an end to that nonsense. They are now treated like cattle because they now mostly act like cattle and I'm not sure which chicken or egg came first. Being in the public service today must be very difficult for those who still want to act professionally.
Posted by: John Chittick | 2009-07-10 12:18:59 AM
Of course, the MSM has neglected to mention that AHS does have a whistle-blower (safe disclosure) policy in place. Perhaps the nurses' union forgot to mention it...
The policy can be found here: http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/files/Corporate/pub-policy-safe-disclosure.pdf
Posted by: J Lucas | 2009-07-12 9:47:30 PM
Thanks for link, J Lucas.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-07-12 10:06:31 PM
hello
Posted by: Ceps Şirketler Gurubu | 2009-07-20 9:01:07 AM
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