A hundred school support employees will demonstrate this Thursday noon in front of the offices in Lévis of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, to denounce the work overload, exhaustion and violence they suffer.
“Mr. Drainville, listen to us, because the school support staff, we are the eternal forgotten,” says Annie Charland, president of the school sector of the Federation of Public Service Employees (FEESP-CSN). In interview with The duty, she calls on the Minister to stop finding solutions “only for teachers”, because secretaries, special education technicians and janitors also need them.
The FEESP-CSN represents more than 35,000 school support employees. They are currently in negotiations with Quebec for the renewal of their collective agreement, which expired on March 31.
With a view to these negotiations, the trade union organization carried out a sounding last January – of which The duty got a copy — from 7,500 school support workers about their working conditions. Among them, 62% said that their work is emotionally draining. Regarding physical violence from students such as beatings and spitting, 35% of these employees say they have suffered.
“When we got the results of the survey, we said: “Phew”. We knew that there was work overload, that our people were exhausted and we also knew about the violence, but the numbers were even more impressive than you might think, ”says Annie Charland.
Loss of Expertise
These working conditions and the “uncompetitive” salary mean that school support employees who have accumulated several years of experience leave their jobs, laments Ms. Charland. “I had a janitor who had 31 years of service. He told me: “Annie, I can’t support my family, I can’t stay on that salary”. »
The president of the FEESP-CSN school sector asks Minister Drainville to listen to the solutions proposed by the “people on the ground”.
For technicians in special education, Annie Charland calls in particular for the increase in their number of hours, because most of them do less than 26 h 15 per week, the minimum required to be considered permanent. They need more time to be able to prevent violence, she says. “With no hours, what happens? They only put out fires and will not work on the student’s problem in depth. »
Contacted by The duty, the office of the Minister of Education pointed out that “negotiations are underway to renew the collective agreements”. “Discussions are held at the bargaining tables and working conditions are addressed there. We want to reach an agreement quickly, ”wrote Florence Plourde, press secretary for Mr. Drainville.
Further details will follow.