Alberta Health Services invokes emergency work rules for nurses as COVID hospitalizations rise

Alberta’s nurses may soon be forced to work mandatory overtime and cancel holidays in response to a chronic staffing problem worsened by surging COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Alberta Health Services notified the United Nurses of Alberta in an email Friday that it was invoking a clause in their collective agreement that allows AHS, in an unforeseen emergency, to impose longer work days and direct nurses to other hospitals in order to address staffing gaps.

In an email, David Harrigan, the union’s director of labour relations, told an AHS official this situation doesn’t meet the definition of an emergency order under the contract. 

“An emergency is