Prime Minister François Legault affirmed that he still has financial room to respond to public sector union members if they make concessions on the organization of work which would allow more flexibility.
Mr. Legault reacted to the repeated refusals of the public sectors of the offers recently tabled by the government at the negotiating tables.
The Prime Minister indicated that the government still has financial room, even if the Minister of Finance had recently stated that it would be necessary to borrow to improve the offers previously made to public sector employees.
“We are at 16.7% on a payroll of 60 billion, it is within the financial framework,” he said at a press briefing. But it is so important to me to improve health and education services that we are open to other compromises. »
Mr. Legault reiterated that the government is determined to obtain more flexibility in the organization of work.
“There is money and we are very open about money,” he said. I expect that we will agree on salary increases. Where it is difficult is that there is a lot of resistance from the unions to give us back normal managerial powers. »
According to the Prime Minister, these concessions would make it possible to improve the services offered in health and education.
“It will take courage because in fact the unions have never ceded these powers for decades,” he admitted.
The Common Front, which brings together 420,000 union members from the CSN, the CSQ, the FTQ and the APTS in the public sectors, education, health and social services as well as higher education, will react to the government filing on Thursday in Quebec .
The Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ), which represents nurses in particular, considers the government’s latest offer, which provides for a salary increase of 12.7% over five years, to be “clearly insufficient”.
The Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) announced Wednesday evening that it will soon submit a counter-offer to the government in order to resolve the impasse which persists in the negotiations surrounding the next collective agreements.
More details will follow