(Montreal) The Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS), which represents more than 3,000 paramedics, and the government have reached an agreement in principle.
Posted at 7:39 p.m.
The Minister responsible for Government Administration and President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, and the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, made the announcement on Saturday in a press release.
According to the government, this agreement will allow “an improvement in the remuneration and working conditions of the largest group of ambulance workers in Quebec, but also to promote the development of accessibility of front-line services to the population”.
The FSSS, affiliated with the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), had not yet issued a statement about the agreement on Saturday evening. The government has indicated that it will allow “the time necessary for the FSSS-CSN to present the offer to its members before making the details of the agreement public”.
Paramedics had been without a collective agreement since 1er April 2020. In January, the FSSS-CSN had requested the intervention of a conciliator in their negotiations, saying that it was at an “impasse” in its talks with the government.
The strike, which affected several municipalities since last summer, spread to other unions in February. The means of pressure concerned in particular the billing forms that the paramedics fill out to give to their employer. The public was hardly affected by these strikes, given the scale of the essential services that must be provided.
Paramedics affiliated with the FSSS-CSN also demonstrated in front of SAQ distribution centers in Montreal and Quebec City on February 25.
The disputes included issues such as wages, shift schedules that require a paramedic to be on call 24 hours a day for seven days, meal times and mental health.