(Montreal) The Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) has ruled that the FIQ-Union of care professionals of the Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec must stop its means of pressure, which includes the threat of resignation in block of nursing staff.
In her decision rendered on Saturday, Judge Myriam Bédard ordered the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) “to stop encouraging and inciting its members to resign en bloc”.
It prohibits workers from resigning in this mobilization effort and requires that they withdraw their resignations filed in the context of pressure tactics.
The Tribunal concluded that these measures deprive or are likely to deprive the public of a service to which they are entitled.
The CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec recently announced forced changes to the working hours of nursing staff. This would include the imposition of having to work certain weekends.
“According to the employer, these measures are intended to relieve the staff who provide continuous care and to reduce the use of compulsory overtime,” reads a document from the Tribunal.
After this announcement from the CIUSSS, the staff took action. He began to stop entering computer data in the patient’s file. This information would in particular make it possible to identify the number of patients, the reasons for consultations, the level of alternative care or the management of patient departures. This had the effect of “falsifying ongoing audits or even delaying the release of hospital beds. »
The Administrative Labor Tribunal has ruled that employees must immediately stop refusing to enter certain data into the systems since this is detrimental to the quality of service to which patients are entitled.
Last week the FIQ presented its action plan during a special meeting in response to the employer’s impositions. The union announced to the CIUSSS the intention of its members to resign en bloc if it did not back down.
The FIQ planned to file the resignations on February 27 if it managed to consolidate 500 signed letters.
Before the Court, the union argued that the resignation of employees is a right to privacy protected by the charters of rights and freedoms. He asserted that an individual resignation is a matter of privacy and cannot be prohibited.
However, Judge Bédard did not accept these arguments, considering that the process was more akin to “a disguised strike”.
Although the resignation letters are signed “by each of the employees who adhere to this concerted action, the resignations are not individual in the alleged sense since they derive their desired effect from the fact that they are given en bloc, massively. »
The Court orders the members of the FIQ “to provide their normal work until the renewal of the agreements”. The workers’ collective agreement will expire on March 31, 2023.