Environmental Services Onboarding

On October 14, 2022, Providence Health Care welcomed the return of Environmental Services (EVS) and 309 EVS staff across seven PHC sites:

• St. Paul's Hospital – 199 housekeeping workers
• Mount Saint Joseph Hospital – 49 housekeeping workers
• St. Vincent's: Langara– 16 housekeeping workers
• Holy Family Hospital – 14 housekeeping workers
• St. Vincent's: Brock Fahrni– 13 housekeeping workers
• Youville Residence – 13 housekeeping workers
• St. John Hospice Providence – five housekeeping workers

Read the full BC Government news release here.

New look, same service

While there is no change to EVS operations or service continuity, what is changing is a new look for housekeeping staff.

As PHC staff, EVS staff will wear PHC-issued scrub-like uniforms, similar to current PHC clinical staff uniforms.

Contact Us

If you have any questions during this transition, please reach out to us at WelcomePHC@providencehealth.bc.ca.

We also encourage staff to reach out to your union. If you have any questions or need help with a specific situation related to the health sector collective agreement, please email the Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) at return@heu.org.

Other Key Contacts

Portfolio Clerk | Email: FoodAndEnvironmentalServices@providencehealth.bc.ca

Your Portfolio Clerk is your main contact for general staffing questions. Contact your Portfolio Clerk for any questions about staff scheduling including long-term scheduling and pre-booking, Andgo, to request a change to your schedule or to cancel a shift or about your pay.

Here is the link to PHC’s Andgo website for more information and resources including how-to videos.

Here is the link to the Employee Portal (MySchedule): andgo.phcnet.ca

Staffing Intake (Short Call) | Phone: 604-806-8826 | Email: StaffingIntake@providencehealth.bc.ca

Contact Short Call for help if you have any issues with your upcoming schedule and/or any shift bids that start within 48 hours. For example, if you need help canceling a shift that you bid on in Andgo that starts that day or the day after, contact Short Call.

Why is this happening?

The provincial government first announced its plans in August 2021 to repatriate commercial housekeeping and food service contracts under Bill 47— the Health Sector Statutes Repeal Act.

Bill 47 repealed the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act (Bill 29) and the Health Sector Partnerships Agreement Act (Bill 94), which had facilitated contracting out in the health sector. Following the initial announcement, health authorities and PHC served notice under the terms of 21 commercial service contracts and have started a phased approach to repatriate housekeeping and food service contracts.

For more information about Bill 47 and the Ministry of Health's phased approach to repatriating food services and housekeeping contracts in BC hospitals, please read the below Government of BC News Releases:

Cleaning, dietary workers coming back in-house at B.C. hospitals (Aug. 30, 2021)

Seniors and patients to benefit from fair workplace legislation (Nov. 8, 2018)