Quebec Schools | Breathless staff

In 2021-2022, the absenteeism rate of personnel from school service centers in Québec due to illness jumped by 29% compared to 2014-2015. In question: the psychological ill-being which puts the troops on the floor, and not only the teachers. School secretaries and janitors are also at their wit’s end.

The numbers sent to The Press by the Fédération des centers de services scolaire du Québec (FCSSQ) also reveal that the rate of absenteeism due to illness is at its highest in ten years.

Women are the most affected, in all job categories, without exception – executives, professionals, teachers and support staff.

The FCSSQ observes in this regard that this is “a trend that goes back a long time”.

“Different reasons may explain the higher absenteeism rate among women than among men,” notes the organization. In particular, women generally have more family responsibilities than men when it comes to children and caring for elderly or sick family members. »

For the year 2021-2022, disabilities of a mental nature represent 57.14% of absences, and this proportion increases a little more each year, indicates the FCSSQ.

These statistics come as no surprise to Mélanie Hubert, president of the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE). “The teachers take a lot of medication. As a union, we know this because it puts a lot of pressure on the insurance plans. The school network is on its knees. »

English service centers and school boards provided their data to the FCSSQ on a voluntary basis. In all, 58 (out of 72) did so and recorded 1,082,659 days lost out of a possible 26.2 million days worked. This means that if the school authorities had all responded, the total would be well over one million days lost.

Teaching children, managing parents

Pascale Désormeaux sympathizes with all the staff in bad shape and is in no way surprised by this increasing absenteeism. After 16 years as an elementary school teacher, she hit a wall and lifted the veils. End of teaching. She chose a few years ago to become a waitress in a restaurant whose owner is herself an ex-teacher who needed to change her life.

M^me Désormeaux recalls this surreal conversation with a parent who was outraged that she contacted him to tell him about her son’s behavioral problems. He told her bluntly, she recalls, that he didn’t bother her when he had problems with his son at home, and that in class, it was up to her to manage. And that she doesn’t dare disturb him again.

“The majority of parents are friendly and when there is only one like that, it’s fine. But the problem is the accumulation. »

Today, she agrees to do some replacements in adult education, but most of her income comes from her job as a waitress. “It’s less prestigious to say that I’m a waitress, but I decided to prioritize my mental health. »

An effect of shortages

Josée Scalabrini, president of the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ), believes that shortages are closely linked to absenteeism.

For example, she says that when she was a young teacher, emergency substitutes were almost never requested. Today, because there are so many holes to fill and reminder lists are dry, they are commonplace. “Some teachers even do it every day,” she observes, pointing out that this is in addition to the work they also do in the evenings and on weekends.

Emergency locum care is certainly paid, and yes, she says, “some like it because it gives them extra income”, but there are also many of them who push their own limits.

For fear of increasing the burden on their colleagues, many also wait until they are totally exhausted before retiring, so that the slope to climb back up is all the steeper.

Another problem: those who return from sick leave are expected to return to work pedal to the mat, so many are those who quickly fall back into combat.

“There can be up to four disability leaves in a row,” notes Ms.^me Scalabrini.

School secretaries and janitors also out of breath

The great fatigue of teachers is often put forward. But the numbers show a particularly strained support staff.

“Some are secretaries for a school of 400 students, but others are secretaries for a school of 800 students and they have the same salary,” notes Éric Pronovost, president of the Federation of School Support Staff (CSQ).

Very often, he adds, “the principals are absent because they have meetings at the school service centre. The secretary is therefore often left alone to manage the calls of parents and all the rest”.

The support staff union also includes special education technicians whose task, in recent years, has been to come to the aid of teachers who are unable to control a student in crisis in the classroom. Normally, if these technicians were numerous enough, they would have time to act upstream, in prevention, instead of being on the alert all the time, observes Mr. Pronovost.

He also wishes to underline the fatigue of the janitors who, since the pandemic, “do not only clean, but who are asked to disinfect everything”.