(Montreal) There will be no legal aid lawyers at work before 1:30 p.m. this Tuesday in five regions of Quebec, namely those of Montreal, Laval, Laurentides, Lanaudière, Bas-Saint- Laurent and the Gaspé Peninsula.
Posted at 10:46 a.m.
These lawyers unionized at the CSN started a half-day strike.
They make up about half of the 400 legal aid lawyers across the province.
These lawyers have set up pickets in front of the legal aid offices in their region and must then converge on the courthouses in these regions to demonstrate at lunchtime.
They have been without an employment contract since December 31, 2019 and are protesting against the Treasury Board’s refusal to maintain parity with Quebec Crown prosecutors.
The last collective agreement recognized the principle of parity with Crown prosecutors and the members of legal aid have difficulty explaining this volte-face on the part of the employer.
Salary conditions for Crown prosecutors are recommended by an independent committee and they have obtained increases of 10% over four years. Quebec submitted to legal aid lawyers the same increases as those offered to the public service, namely 6% over three years.
The president of the union of legal aid lawyers of Montreal and Laval, Ms.and Justine Lambert-Boulianne, argues that its members are the first to the front in the files that the government nevertheless qualifies as priorities, such as the files of youth rights, domestic or sexual violence or defense against renovictions.
Mand Lambert-Boulianne believes that the time has come for the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, to intervene, since the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, does not seem to want to budge.
She recalls that legal aid lawyers plead “the same cases, before the same courts and the same judges, as Crown prosecutors”.
The union points out that ministers Sonia LeBel and Simon Jolin-Barrette, both lawyers, have already come out in favor of pay parity between legal aid lawyers and Crown prosecutors in the past.
CSN union members unanimously voted in favor of a three-day strike mandate and further work stoppages cannot be ruled out in the coming weeks. Since they are not subject to the Essential Services Act, the files which were to proceed on Tuesday morning have been suspended and postponed, for the most part, to the afternoon.