A report on seniors care in B.C. raises concerns that aide workers fired for abusing residents have been reinstated on a provincial registry, allowing them to work in the field.

It also flags concerns about the sharing of rooms and meal times.

The report commissioned by the B.C. Care Providers Association (BCCPA) concludes investigations by the provincial government’s B.C. Care Aide & Community Health Worker Registry are reported in an untimely manner, expensive and often more lenient than internal and other external investigations by provincial licensing authorities.

The care providers association represents 263 private and non-profit care providers with about 11,000 care beds.

“The vast majority of care is done in a very respectful way and people have great interactions,” BCCPA CEO Daniel Fontaine said Monday.

“In the rare cases they aren’t, we have to make sure that industry and government and other organizations like the B.C. Care Aid registry should all be working on the same page to ensure that those individuals (workers) are taken out of the system as soon as possible.”

The BCCPA has adopted a zero-tolerance stance toward abuse of residents by workers.

The association’s view is that those caught abusing a resident should not be given a second chance, Fontaine said.

The registry was set up by the Ministry of Health in 2010, the first in Canada, to provide a database of care aides and community health workers eligible to work at care facilities where even some beds are funded by the province. Most private facilities also require workers to be registered.

The registry sets out requirements for reporting cases of abuse.

As of January 2014, 139 employees were reported to the registry as being terminated or suspended for abuse. Of the 66 investigations that were completed (the registry only examines termination when it’s contested), 54 employees were reinstated to the registry after requirements such as further education were fulfilled.

“This is an enormous concern for residents, families and care providers,” states the report.

The reinstatement means there’s no record on the registry of the workers being fired for abuse, Fontaine noted.

He also said the abuse found by employers had been substantiated by licensing authorities such as regional health authorities.

But Bruce Bell, project manager for the B.C. Care Aide & Community Health Worker Registry, said the issue of terminating workers for alleged abuse of residents and removing them from the registry is a complex issue.

Bell said there has to be some proof of just cause to terminate care aid workers, and often the findings by third-party investigators for the registry (including labour lawyers) do not find this proof. It could have to do with seriousness of the incident or lack of witnesses, he said.

Bell noted that the BCCPA zero-tolerance policy doesn’t take into consideration there are labour relations issues involved in any decision to fire a worker. “In labour law, it’s not zero tolerance (for worker conduct),” he said.

In a written statement, the Ministry of Health said the registry needs to consider the rights of employees under collective bargaining agreements in unionized facilities.