Workers at Whitehorse’s youth group homes will no longer be forced to work alone – a practice the Yukon Employees’ Union (YEU) has long been opposed to for safety reasons.

The new reality is based in a decision from Pamela Muir, the Public Service Commissioner.

The YEU had filed a policy grievance against the employees being forced to work alone back in January.

Steve Geick, the YEU’s president, said in an interview Friday the workers have complained of these conditions going back as far as 2014.

He explained the group home caregivers would often have to work alone all night.

Some of them complained this put them in danger. Others claimed to have suffered injuries.

“In those years, there was a lot of WCB (workers’ compensation board) cases about workers getting injured,” Geick told the Star.

He explained the injuries would come up due to violence in the group homes.

Some of the young people, who are going through traumatic times in their lives, can be difficult.

Some are older teenagers who can have potential for violence, he noted. The risks of employees getting hurt are sharpened when there is only one person on duty at night.

“It’s inherent that you are going to have risks like that,” he said.

The Yukon Workers’ Compensation Heath and Safety Board investigated these complaints and recommended that staff not work alone, Geick said.

The Department of Health and Social Services (HSS) brought in third-party consultants twice to review group homes. That exercise yielded similar recommendations.

Geick explained that HSS kept quoting national statistics – and did not change anything about the sole employee issue.

He said the Yukon government felt that as long as staffing components remained in this average range, nothing needed to be changed.

He said the national average is the three to four group home residents per care worker.

For some time after the WCB investigation, he added, things improved for the caregivers – but it didn’t last.

“People still kept getting injured,” the union president said.

He clarified that a worker does not get injured every time he or she works a shift alone. It’s just that there is always a risk in those conditions, he said.

Geick added that having only one staff member on the premises disadvantages the group home on more than just safety issues. He said it can cut down on the amount of programming that can be offered.

The staffing issues can happen not just during the night shift.

Most of the time, there is more than one caregiver scheduled, he said, but this can be thrown off when someone calls in sick. In this case, a replacement will be sought, but someone is not always available.

In some cases, a worker could be asked to fill in at another home, Geick said.

That said, he clarified the injuries mostly took place during the nightshift, when one person is scheduled.

Now, with Muir’s decision, at least two workers will need to be scheduled during that shift.

This policy change will cover all youth group homes operated by HSS.

Geick was unable to say if this means more staff will be hired. He pointed out there are several auxiliary or on-call employees who are supposed to take shifts as they’re needed.

He was unsure of the exact staffing ratio.

Geick was not able to estimate how the injury rate could be affected by this decision.

He is happy to see the changes, stating it’s incumbent on the employer, the Yukon government in this case, to mitigate risk to workers.

The YEU may push for more staff to be hired if needed. Geick explained this will depend on the current staffing levels. If the levels are too low, the union will lobby for more staff.

He is also hopeful that this decision could be a stepping-stone to changing similar conditions in other areas, like nursing.

“I think this is going to lead to further improvements in other areas in Health and Social Services,” Geick said.

HSS could not make any official available to comment for this story.

Group homes events among year’s top stories ... see pages 4, 5.