This April 27, 2022, Administrative Staff Day, is an opportunity to take stock of jobs in crisis, at the crossroads of the pandemic, the labor shortage, inflation and a public network. struggling health and social services.
Our society and our media always take a close interest in the front-stage actors of the network, doctors, healthcare professionals, orderlies. As for the “clerical staff, technicians and administrative professionals” (known as “category 3”), we cannot even say that they are the unloved of the network, because they have always been and remain completely in the shadows.
In fact, we take for granted the hiring and payroll of all network personnel, the preparation of work schedules, the purchase and distribution of medical equipment, the opening and updating of medical records, the proper functioning of the computer as well as a thousand tasks that “do themselves”… Supposedly.
The pandemic has compounded societal and governmental neglect of these employees, who have had almost no bonuses or incentives despite their considerable exposure to the virus and increased workloads. “I consider that we have been downright, but downright forgotten. I have the impression that the government does not even know that we exist, ”comments Stéphane Morinville, administrative officer class 3.
With the general scarcity of labor in Quebec, these staff members find it increasingly difficult to swallow their poor salaries and working conditions, and understand that the network is an increasingly less competitive employer. Health and social services establishments in Quebec are having great difficulty retaining and recruiting category 3 personnel. In human resources and in the field, this crisis is hitting hard. Our members, people of heart, go so far as to make themselves ill to minimize the consequences on care and services.
The last public sector negotiations have begun to catch up somewhat on working conditions, but with inflation, we are still a long way off. As for the Quebec government, it shows so little interest in these employees that, for example, it still refuses to settle the 2010 pay equity maintenance complaints. […]
“We are perhaps less at the front of the picture, but we are really at the bottom of the pyramid which holds everyone, on the other hand”, summarizes Cathy Ross, medical secretary. The bottom of the pyramid is cracking, and it’s time to see.