Canadian Union Of Public Employees: Case Study

The Canadian Union of Public Employees(CUPE) believes that the layoffs in health care facilities across Canada may save money but can also cause complications. CUPE stated that medical transcriptionists are being replace by speech recognition technology. Apart from the new technology being cost efficient, they are 8 times more likely to create errors. This new technology is capable of doing the exact same job as a medical transcriptionists except it is not able to review or edit reports of doctors. CUPE believes that the layoffs will affect the work environment. With no one able to review and edit reports, the doctors are left with more work which can be very time consuming and can ultimately reduce the amount of interacting time spent with the patients in addition to the workers personal time. The Canada Union of Public Employees also states that because
Canada is approximately 30% unionized(“Union Coverage in Canada, 2013”, 2014) for example The Ottawa Hospital. In regards to the relationship between The Ottawa Hospitals HR Management and the employee unions, there are common complications that are present. Unions make it difficult for managers to make any changes in the workplace. These complications are mainly when circumstances go beyond the control of management. One main complications is the lack of flexibility in the workplace. “Many unions stipulate that a worker has one role and that they must not carry out any task that falls outside their job description” (Manktelow et al., 2014). This belief can make it difficult for employers to manage the business when situations arise. When the work volume increases and many employees are sick, the remaining workers