The Professional Association of Government Engineers of Quebec seized Monday the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) to denounce the use of strikebreakers by Quebec accused of negotiating in bad faith.
APIGQ bases its legal actions on concrete examples of violation of the Labor Code by government services, by calling on technicians or professionals in contract management to carry out engineering tasks.
The Association considers that these practices are contrary to the law and harm the public interest, in the sense that the engineer is excluded from the infrastructure management process, by allowing a technician to operate a start-up meeting worksite.
“Rather than putting energy into trying to circumvent the problem, the government should propose something substantial at the negotiating table to bring its engineers back to work,” denounced in a press release Marc-André Martin, president of the APIGQ.
Having suspended the indefinite strike to allow negotiations to move forward and find common ground with Quebec, the APIGQ was flabbergasted when it discovered that the government had cut engineers’ pay even before the walkout was triggered.
“The situation is degenerating and we invite Sonia Lebel to show pragmatism and grant the necessary mandates to her negotiators to quickly reach an agreement in principle,” said Mr. Martin.