I finally understood the government’s offers. And I was able to dissect the salary parameters for nurses, teachers and psychologists.
The main points? 1er Next April, the offers would result in salaries between $71,424 and $137,870 for nurses at the top of the scale. As for psychologists – holders of a doctorate – and teachers, the offer would increase their pay to $126,586 and $97,397 on 1er April, respectively.
I finally understood the offers, in the sense that I now know that the additional 3% increase proposed, which would be added to the 10.3% over five years, would not apply to everyone. This is in fact the cost to the government of the various increases offered to subgroups, spread across all 600,000 employees in negotiations, according to my understanding.
Some subgroups will receive much more than the 3% average and others, nothing at all. Added to this is a lump sum of $1000, which corresponds to 1.5% on average. In short, the figure of 14.8% over five years, which we hear everywhere, is a sort of average (10.3% +3% +1.5%) that no employee will really touch.
I also finally understood that the government is asking certain groups to increase their working hours in exchange for substantial increases. My information comes from the government and union centers.
The nurses
Let’s see. The nursing profession is divided into several categories – auxiliaries, technicians, bachelors – but essentially, the offers on the table would result in salaries increased by 18.1% to 20.9% over five years.
To have such increases, full-time nurses would have to add approximately 1.5 hours per week to their schedule, to increase it from 37.5 to 39 hours.
1er Next April, their pay would be increased overall by 12.9% for daytime workers and up to 15.6% for those who accept a condensed schedule on weekends. This increase is over two years, since their current salary is paid according to the parameters of 1er April 2022.
Basically, therefore, more than a third of the 12.9% increase is explained by an increase in working hours (5%) and the rest, by a salary jump (7.9%) over two years.
Baccalaureate nurses in the most difficult conditions (weekends in the emergency room) at the top of the scale will receive $137,870, if the offer is accepted, an amount which will increase to $144,140 at the end of the employment contract, on 1er April 2027.
There are far fewer psychologists than nurses. We are talking about around 1,700 psychologists – most of them in the health network – compared to 83,000 nurses and 131,000 teachers.
Their situation is more complicated. First, the government currently pays psychologists in the health network retention bonuses, often 9.6%, because the relatively low salary leads them to leave for the private sector.
I say relatively low, because the salary for a psychologist is $96,575, although most have PhDs. Psychologists are in fact head doctors, and their pay is much lower than that of body doctors, it goes without saying. In short, with the bonus, they earn $105,846 for 35 hours of work since 1er April 2022.
The government is asking them to add 2.5 hours to their weekly schedule and is offering them an increase of 19.6% of their pay on 1er next April. In other words, of this increase, approximately half comes from additional hours – assuming that they would be paid overtime – and the other half, from the direct improvement in their salary.
At the end of the five-year contract, the 1er April 2027, the increase would be 25.1%, depending on the employer’s offer, and the salary would be $132,374 at the top of the scale (after 13 years of seniority).
The unions that represent them respond that they cannot be asked to work more, given the effect of seeing troubled patients all week long. In addition, they want the government to speed up the processing of their complaint concerning pay equity – psychologists are mainly women – filed eight years ago.
The government tells them that the offer on the table addresses part of the pay inequity, and that this part is an advance on the eventual settlement.
CEGEPs and school service centers also have around a hundred psychologists and their pay would be increased even more than that of their health colleagues, due to a delay. Their increase would therefore be from 25% to 37% at the end of the five years of the contract, on 1er April 2027.
In the education sector, the situation is simpler. Salaries at the top of the scale would be increased by 5.8% on 1er April 2024 and a total of 10.7% over five years, which is essentially the blanket offer available to everyone. A teacher would earn $101,834 on 1er April 2027.
Teachers benefited from a larger increase than others in the last negotiation. Current discussions mainly focus on the heaviness of ordinary classes.
Quebec is also proposing to adjust the pay of school daycare educators and classroom assistants. The jump could reach 86.4% in April 2024, but for a week of 37.5 hours, therefore increased by 75%.
This is the picture. There are still a lot of employees missing, but hey, it’s a big mouthful.
I would still like to remind you that employees who earn $52,000 or less at the top of the scale (range 1 to 11 in the jargon) are also offered a special additional increase of 1% of their salaries, on average (so 11 .3% instead of 10.3%), according to my understanding.
We will now see what results from the negotiations…