Third AIMS roll out in Sask. health care sees payroll, scheduling issues

Since the health authority began to roll out the payroll and scheduling portions of its AIMS program last month, SEIU-West said dozens of health-care workers in Saskatchewan’s southwest have been working without the proper pay.

It’s a familiar complaint for the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) program within Saskatchewan. Two other launches for facets of the system have garnered similar frustrations from health-care workers, in 2022 and last year.

Read more: 

• ER doctors the latest casualties of SHA pay system, NDP says
• Sask. health-care workers missing pay with new software rollout
• NDP rolls out $1.1 billion funding plan for Saskatchewan health care

Lisa Zunti, president of SEIU-West, said workers aren’t being paid enough, they’re not being paid properly, or they’re being paid at the wrong rate.

“The result? Members are unable to pay their bills, unable to make ends meet, stressed out that they might lose their cars, even their homes,” said Zunti at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Some workers have also been unable to pick up shifts, causing problems with staffing at some facilities.

“Patients in hospitals, residents in care facilities, and home care clients are not getting the care they need and deserve because AIMS is not scheduling enough staff,” explained Zunti.

The problems are affecting dozens of people in what used to be the Cypress Health Region in the Swift Current area and Zunti said there are nearly 100 grievances that have been filed – 39 filed in just one day.

But Zunti said the grievance process can take weeks, and when it comes to their pay, waiting that long isn’t an option for some.

She said the situation is bad for workers, patients, and the staffing situation in the area, explaining that learning about pay problems could shift some health-care workers’ thoughts about taking a job in the area.

“Something like this is really going to shift the tide as far as if I’m going to work there or not,” said Zunti.

Health-care workers and their supporters rallied at an SEIU-West news conference about the AIMS pay and scheduling program. Oct. 14, 2025 (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)

The Saskatchewan Health Authority said it rolled out the scheduling components of the system, the final part to be introduced, and nearly 7,000 workers are using it.

As far as the problems being reported, the Saskatchewan Health Authority said in a statement that it had been meeting with unions and employees about the system, and it has teams working to answer people’s questions about scheduling and payroll.

“We recognize that some team members may face challenges as they adapt to these new systems, and we are committed to supporting them and addressing issues as they arise,” read the statement.

It went on to say that it had been rolling out the program in a gradual, phased approach and held focused training with each launch.

Zunti was worried that the next area to be phased in would be Saskatoon early next year, which has systems the entire province relies on.

However, the health authority said it has adjusted the program’s schedule to make sure issues are fixed before expanding further.

The health authority declined to provide any further clarity to its statement.

On Tuesday, Zunti called for the workers’ missing pay to be made whole, for the program to be pulled back until the problems are fixed, and for it not to be tested on real employees.

“The problems that we’re seeing are the same problems that we’ve seen before, so I’m not a fan of our members being treated as guinea pigs for their system that clearly isn’t working,” she explained.

The original price tag for the program was $86 million, but a provincial auditor’s report in December 2024 said the total cost had ballooned to $250 million.

— with files from 650 CKOM’s Marija Robinson.

Editor’s note: Lisa Zunti was incorrectly identified as president of SEIZE-West in a photo caption. She is president of SEIU-West. We regret the error.