The delays in the payment of bonuses to professionals in the health network are “shameful” and recall the fiasco of the Phoenix pay system to the federal government, launched Tuesday the deputy Vincent Marissal of Quebec solidaire.
On Monday, a coalition of eight health unions argued that the government owes $2.4 billion in bonuses and wage increases in the health network.
“It’s shameful, reacted Mr. Marissal the next day. “We made them all kinds of promises and we are not even able to deliver what is quite the simplest, when you employ people: it is the paycheck. »
The unions calculate that their members expect sums of $1.28 billion associated with the signing of collective agreements and $1.15 billion due to the settlement of pay equity complaints.
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, did not dispute these sums. In a press briefing on Tuesday, he declared that “there remains approximately 1.2 billion to be paid” in bonuses and “adjustments” resulting from the signing of collective agreements.
“We will pay 500 million, 400 million in the next two paydays [le 23 février et le 10 mars]. If there is money left, we will make an advance, ”he promised. He argued that his government had so far paid 80% of the bonuses and amounts provided for in collective agreements.
No answers for interest and pay equity
The Minister did not provide a timetable for the payment of the amounts due under the pay equity settlements. These amounts are the largest: some professionals such as audiologists or speech therapists expect payments of $40,000, or even $52,000, according to estimates by various unions. ” […] the whole issue of pay equity, which has been dragging on for ten years — that’s not us — but we’ll take care of that too,” Mr. Dubé contented himself with saying.
The elected official also avoided answering a question about the payment of interest provided for in the agreements. The labor organizations criticize Quebec for having given up making these payments.
In the opinion of deputy Marissal, the delays in health payments mean that “we are in the process of creating a new Phoenix scandal with CAQ sauce in Quebec”. The vice-president of the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN), Josée Marcotte, made the same comparison earlier this month, in an interview at Duty. “People are frustrated,” she had dropped.
“We are above all pounding, once again, the will of these nursing staff to return to the network”, continued the deputy Marissal. “Put yourself in their shoes. They have left or are about to leave, exhausted, badly paid, burnout, ill-equipped — remember the N95 saga. The minister practically gets on his knees brandishing checks: “Come back, I have changed, come back, I have changed”. Well, do you know what? Months later, they are still waiting for their checks to the tune of 2.4 billion in Quebec. »
The delays in payment are explained, among other things, by the retroactive measures provided for in the collective agreements and by logistical problems at the Ministry of Health, on which The duty lifted the veil in November.