A petition, launched by the FIQ to try to keep respiratory therapists in the same employment category as nurses, of whom it already represents the majority, has collected more than 10,200 signatures so far.
It is a series of amendments tabled to Minister Christian Dubé’s health reform in November, which reshuffles the cards in terms of employment categories in health, constituting six categories rather than four.
This reshuffle could lead to competition between health unions to see who will represent the affected job titles. They themselves still do not know what form this could take.
Currently, category 1 includes nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, mainly represented by the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ).
But it is the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS) which is in the majority in category 6, that of technologists and technicians into which respiratory therapists would be moved.
The FIQ petition indicates that “the job titles of nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists included in current category 1 have complementary expertise and organization of work in direct care given to patients.”
According to the petition, “the job titles of respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists must remain in category 1 so as not to harm the organization of work or the stability of teams.”
Joined in turn, the APTS said it regretted “that this union reorganization was still enacted unilaterally, without consulting the first people concerned: the workers”.
The APTS pleads for the right to free association to prevail, as well as the “community of interests” of workers.
For Quebec, this division facilitates negotiations and allows more flexibility.