(Quebec) The Legault government launches a full charge against the health unions, which it accuses of hindering its recruitment efforts. Union delegates are “more concerned” with their own interests than those of their members, bluntly criticized Minister Christian Dubé on Tuesday. An exit that provoked the ire of trade unions.
“To blame us again is a little odious. Its reading […] that we do not assume our role. It’s something, ”said the president of the Quebec Health Federation (FSQ-CSQ), Claire Montour.
“During 20 months of pandemic, he announced his ministerial decrees to us. Sometimes, we learned it on television, and it was the working conditions of our members [qu’on parlait]. Today, he criticizes us for not assuming and not living up to our mandate? This is the end! », She argued.
The five unions which represent nursing and cardiorespiratory care personnel eligible for the new retention and attraction bonuses of $ 15,000 per nurse are “stunned by the contempt” of the Minister of Health and Social Services, who went there on Tuesday of an attack in good standing against them.
“I do not think that the unions collaborate up to the role they should have,” said Mr. Dubé, during a press conference on vaccination. “I think our discussions with them have revealed to us in the last few weeks that they are more concerned that union representatives do not have access to the bonus,” he added, visibly irritated by the situation. .
The “real reason”?
The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) and five union organizations, which are united on the issue, are negotiating to relax the conditions relating to the granting of bonuses offered to full-time nurses. Quebec always claims to be “open” to offering accommodations.
According to the unions, the terms of the application of the ministerial decree on the payment of these lump sums “are too restrictive”. The decree is “coercive, disqualifying and unfair” and does not respect the collective agreement, they denounced in unison in a joint press conference on Monday in Montreal. It is this outing that seems to have stung the Minister of Health.
According to him, “the real reason” is the fact that employees on union leave will not have access to the bonus ranging from $ 12,000 to $ 18,000 depending on the region.
We put in very attractive bonuses, then what I’ve been hearing for weeks: ‘yes, but we, the union representatives, we are not entitled to it.’
Christian Dubé, Minister of Health and Social Services
“We say to ourselves that we are going to try to negotiate together, to discuss, then to talk to each other, and when I hear their press briefing, [lundi] where there is no mention of the aspect of the union delegation, I think that at some point you have to set the record straight, ”he added, asking the unions to“ s ‘rise above the fray’.
The Prime Minister, François Legault, then seemed to want to temper the spirits by affirming that his government “does not want to make chicanes”.
“What we want is to offer services to the population and we would like to have the collaboration of the various union representatives,” he said on Tuesday, stressing, however, “the very negative discourse” of the unions.
“We are looking for the culprits”, says the FIQ
The president of the FSQ-CSQ, Claire Montour, assures us that it is “completely false” to assert that the unions’ interventions have mainly focused only on union liberation, as Mr. Dubé evokes.
“We brought [cet] stake in our solutions ”, specified Mme My turn. “There are releases, bereavement leave, medical appointments… We talked about all that. […] He reduced our message, ”she lamented. The unions presented a list of 15 solutions to make the ministerial decree “fair”.
The Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) believes for its part that the government “is looking for the culprits” rather than “recognizing that its hiring plan did not work”. The interim president, Nathalie Lévesque, deplores in passing the “one-way discourse” of the Ministry.
The parties do not agree either on the recognition of the seniority of nurses who would take advantage of the hiring plan to return to the field. “Explain to me how I can look at a nurse who is retired or who is in an agency [privée], who wants to come back to work with us, then to whom we say: ‘we do not recognize your seniority’ ”, illustrated Mr. Dubé.
But the reading of unions is very different.
For those who have been in the fight for 18 months, all that is currently left of our collective agreements is respect for seniority. Do you think we’ll put that into play?
Nathalie Lévesque, interim president of the FIQ
Another point in dispute: the issue of unpaid leave. It is written in the application guide of the ministerial decree that “days without pay lose eligibility” for the premium.
The relationship between Quebec and the health unions has been weakening since the start of the school year. Mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers has been a recent bone of contention between the parties. Labor organizations joined forces with the Parti Québécois to demand an extension of the October 15 deadline.
These disputes may appear surprising, moreover, given that Quebec has just renegotiated the collective agreement with the FIQ, in particular. The FSQ-CSQ for its part signed its new employment contract last week.
Group fire from the opposition
The Legault government on Tuesday faced a group fire from the opposition parties, who demand the end of “governance by decrees” in health. The Liberal Party of Quebec will present this Wednesday a motion so that the National Assembly “disavows the renewal of the state of health emergency” and that the government table “urgently all the transitional measures necessary to maintain public health” .
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, ARCHIVES THE CANADIAN PRESS
Dominique Anglade, leader of the Quebec Liberal Party
“It is an authoritarian government which wants to manage by decrees, in its own way, it is a government which does not collaborate and which wants to impose its way of doing things at all costs”, lamented the chief Dominique Anglade in an interview, affirming that the current situation no longer justifies the imposition of a state of health emergency in Quebec.
The Parti Québécois also demanded Tuesday that “cease this governance” while it has “the effect of exhausting the nursing staff” and accelerating “departures to the private sector”. Québec solidaire went in the same direction: “Rather than attacking them [au personnel soignant] orders […], we could listen to them and include them in the discussion, ”argued MP Vincent Marissal, who compared the ministerial decrees to“ authoritarian measures ”.
With Hugo Pilon-Larose, Press
864
Number of nurses who have been hired in the health network since the start of the recruitment operation on September 23. Over 737 part-time nurses also accepted a full-time job upgrade.
3721
Number of potential candidates in negotiation with institutions
4300
Number of full-time nurses that the Legault government hopes to recruit
Source: Department of Health and Social Services
More than 27 million for private CHSLDs
Quebec grants funding of $ 27.2 million to private CHSLDs not under agreement to increase the salaries of nursing staff and therefore reduce the salary gap between the public network and the private sector. The Legault government’s announcement is not unrelated to its objective of “harmonizing” residential and long-term care services in Quebec. The pandemic has also made it possible to lift the veil on the differences between private CHSLDs not under agreement and those of the public network. The government also has its sights set on bringing back into the fold of the public sector the forty or so private establishments. A pilot project was launched in September at three sites to prepare a harmonization process between private and public CHSLDs. The Association of Private Long-Term Institutions of Quebec welcomed the government’s announcement on Tuesday.
Fanny Lévesque, Press