Health unions are perplexed by the information that has leaked about the reform that Minister Christian Dubé must introduce in the coming days creating his Health Quebec agency.
The daily The Press reported, in its Monday edition, of a negotiation of collective agreements which would be more centralized, of a management of the network which would also be more centralized and of differentiated wages according to regions and work shifts.
The CSQ, the FTQ, the APTS, the FIQ as well as the Federation of medical specialists preferred to wait to see the bill itself before commenting.
Several pieces of information seem to them “unclear” and lack details, said these trade unions.
Still, this possible reform will constitute “another upheaval in the health system”, while “the network is exhausted”, argues the president of the CSN, Caroline Senneville, in an interview. She wonders aloud if “the game will be worth the candle”.
The union leader finds it “difficult to follow” the reasoning of the Legault government, which considers on the one hand that the reform of Liberal Minister Gaétan Barrette has centralized the network too much, and which, on the other hand, wants to further centralize the management of the network and the negotiation of collective agreements.
“It’s a bit difficult to follow, because the government sometimes talks about decentralization, which the Barrette reform had over-centralized, then itself, the government, makes gestures of centralization,” she laments.
With regard to differentiated wages, she recalls that it is the unions themselves which have negotiated in their collective agreements bonuses for evening and night shifts, as well as remoteness bonuses. The remuneration therefore already takes into account the so-called unfavorable shifts, for example.
With regard to seniority, she noted that her headquarters had already merged seniority lists.