Entangled in a thorny negotiation with teachers and state employees, the government now sees administrative judges giving it an ultimatum and demanding significant salary increases. They threaten to turn to the courts to preserve their judicial independence and talk about pressure tactics.
What there is to know
- The 400 administrative judges issue an ultimatum to Quebec to resume negotiations.
- Judges threaten to sue the government to preserve their judicial independence.
- They are demanding a special negotiation regime to set their remuneration.
“We have understood that the reform promised many times will not take place […] The patience of our members has now reached the breaking point,” exasperate the representatives of administrative judges in a letter obtained by The Press sent on November 7, 2023 to the government’s chief negotiator. The letter is signed by the presidents of the four associations of administrative judges*.
Less known than the judges of the Court of Quebec or the Superior Court, the 400 administrative judges from 16 organizations and courts hear tens of thousands of individual cases per year, whether in matters of housing, work, or transportation. , agricultural protection or access to information.
However, despite their important role, administrative judges receive barely more than half the salary of a judge of the Court of Quebec ($169,500 compared to $310,000). This is approximately the same salary as an experienced prosecutor from the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP).
They have no right to arbitration or strike and are not governed by the Labor Code.
This is why administrative judges are calling for a negotiation regime specific to their reality, like common law judges and DPCP prosecutors, as well as a method of settling disputes. At the moment, their remuneration is simply linked by decree to the increases granted to state executives.
“It’s incompatible”
“If we do not have a negotiation regime of this type, we must negotiate our remuneration with the government, whereas administrative judges, their primary function, is to decide on disputes between the State and litigants. You can’t negotiate your terms with a party who is in front of you every day. It’s incompatible,” explains Daniel Pelletier, president of the Conference of Administrative Judges of Quebec, one of the signatories of the letter, in an interview.
In the letter, the administrative judges deplore the fact that the government has not tabled any “concrete proposals” this spring, despite around ten meetings of a joint committee set up last April.
This “exploratory” committee was to make recommendations regarding the conditions of appointment, as well as review the classification and remuneration of judges.
However, at the end of these meetings, Quebec invited the judges’ associations to return to discuss higher employment with the Secretariat. A proposal deemed “unacceptable” by the associations of administrative judges, then ready to sue the government. Their prosecutor, the former prime minister Me Lucien Bouchard, however, convinced them to give the negotiation a “last chance”.
The administrative judges thus grant the government until November 30 to resume negotiations and submit an offer in December. Otherwise, they plan to take legal action to “recognize their right of association and their right to recognition of a system allowing their remuneration to be determined”.
“No further delay will be granted beyond November 30. We would like to point out that we are currently discussing the remuneration of our members for the period 2020 to 2023 while the entire public sector is discussing the working conditions of their members for the period 2023-2026. Our members will not accept another postponement of these discussions,” the letter concludes.
The Treasury Board declined our interview request.
“Important work was carried out last spring with members of administrative organizations. The Government of Quebec is currently carrying out work with all due seriousness and will provide feedback to the members of the administrative bodies as soon as possible, however, due to the confidentiality of the discussions, we will not issue further comments,” a spokesperson said by email.
* Conference of Administrative Judges of Quebec, Association of Administrative Judges of the Administrative Labor Tribunal, Association of Administrative Judges of the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec and Association of Administrative Judges of the Administrative Housing Tribunal