More than 300 hospital staffers in Whitehorse, Watson Lake and Dawson City could be voting to strike later this week.

In an interview Monday, Steve Geick, the president of the Yukon Employees’ Union (YEU), confirmed a strike vote is scheduled for Thursday.

Any action will depend on what comes out of scheduled conciliation set for Feb. 14-15.

The employees’ major issue is workload, as it was for the last contract which ended Aug. 31, 2017.

“People are burning out,” Geick said.

Open positions are not being filled, he said, and the expanded emergency ward at Whitehorse General Hospital is creating an even bigger workload for the staff.

Geick noted there have been about four rounds of negotiations for a new deal since the last one expired.

Officials are hopeful that next week’s conciliation talks will result in a fair contract.

However, Geick said, the union wants to secure direction from its members going forward.

An essential services agreement has also been worked out for the necessary work that would be done at the three hospitals in the territory should job action be taken.

Matt Davidson, a spokesman for the Yukon Hospital Corp., confirmed the scheduled conciliation talks, but would not get into specifics around the contract.

“We continue to keep the lines of communication open,” he said, adding that the corporation’s priority is the continued, safe, quality care of its patients.