The PSW Registry is all but dead in it’s current form; and that may be a good thing.

Originally, all PSW’s working for public funded employers were required to register by April 1st, 2013. However, this deadline has come and gone. There is NO downside, nor penalty to not registering at this time. In-fact, there may be some upside to those that failed to register. By all accounts, the registry is ‘employer friendly’, with no real benefit to the one’s the registry was supposed to help, the actual personal support workers of Ontario.

The checkered past of the registry has seen some rather interesting twists and turns; from the registry being put in the hands of Liberal Party political Candidates , all the way up to CUPE withdrawing in protest and even sending out a Mid-March 2013 letter expressing their dismay with the current format of the Registry itself.

At this point, PersonalSupportWorker.ca recommends that all PSW’s DO NOT register. A large amount of information shared with the registry (minus contact info) can be accessed by employers and even the general public (if they pose as individuals looking to hire a PSW).

The Registry has no real powers, and at this point looks like an information sharing portal amongst employers. At the end of the day how much the Registry helped legitimize PSW’s or even benefit front line PSW’s is questionable at best.