Case Study: The Green Field Primary Care Clinic

The Green Field Primary Care Clinic (GFPCC) has been experiencing discrimination in its workplace. The clinic is a part of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) and is run by an executive director (ED). Several employees have complained that racism is present in the workplace. The GFPCC has a staff of nineteen people, it consists of one ED, five doctors, five nurses, two social workers, one nurse practitioner, and five administrative assistants. The staff is predominantly female, with only 2 of the doctors being male. Eleven of the staff are white, seven are people of colour and one is indigenous. The nurse practitioner and all the nurses are covered under the Manitoba Nurse’s Union with the WRHA. Three of the five administrative assistants
The ED has conflict with all the nurses, the three non-white doctors, and the permanent administrative assistants. In total, the ED has conflict with ten of her eighteen employees. This is more than half and is very concerning. The ED has had four unresolved grievances in which alleges she has been treating her employees in a discriminatory manner. Two of the grievances allege racist discrimination by the ED against workers of colour, one grievance alleges that the ED failed to take one social worker’s claims of sexual harassment by a non-white male doctor seriously, and the final one alleges that the ED failed to react to one non-white administrative assistant’s complaint that a white nurse frequently makes racist jokes. In addition to the grievances, the non-white nurses feel that the ED does not take their complaints about racist behaviour by white patients seriously. Also, it is important to note that the temporary agency workers, who tend to keep to themselves and have never raised concern, are clearly unhappy. The MGEU steward, Marcie (a social worker) has brought her concerns to the union local executive. It has been one year since Marcie has done this, and the executive has voted in favour to investigate the situation. The level of hostility in the GFPCC is at an all time high and it is time to make a
This way, the entire staff will be able to recognize the importance of diversity in the workplace. They will be able to acknowledge and appreciate the different views that a diverse workforce can bring to a company. Therefore, they will be able to appreciate their co-workers and understand the differences and embrace the benefits that it may bring to the GFPCC.
The implementation of support groups in this workplace will help workers who feel alienated from their co-workers to feel a sense of belonging. For example, this may help the temporary agency workers whom tend to keep to themselves and are obviously unhappy to talk about their concerns in the workplace. Additionally, having the ED attend these support group meetings will help her recognize the discriminatory behaviour in which her workers experience. The support groups will give the ED the opportunity to take notice of her worker’s concerns and issues of discriminatory behaviour from