(Montreal) In order to increase the chances of concluding an agreement in the public sector by the end of the year, Quebec is committed to considerably reducing the number of its sectoral demands made to unions and is asking them to make the same end of the road.
So-called sectoral demands are those that affect working conditions in sectors such as education and health. It is neither about salaries nor the pension plan, which are rather negotiated at the central table.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, the president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, said she was ready “within two weeks” to reduce her sectoral requests to “around five”, in order to prioritize the most important and thus increasing the chances of concluding an agreement by the end of the year to renew the collective agreements in the public and parapublic sectors.
On the other hand, it asks the unions – not only the common front, but also the others – to do the same, in the same order of magnitude. Some submitted around sixty requests. This should be reduced to around five, but the number may vary slightly.
If the union and management parties each take this step, it would be possible to reach an agreement by the end of the year, believes Minister LeBel. “We would aim for December. »
However, she warns: if the unions do not reduce their demands to a significantly lower number, “the bonuses will end”. If the unions prioritize them and reduce the number as requested, the bonuses will be maintained until December, while negotiations will continue to renew all of the collective agreements, which expired on March 31.
These bonuses are precious in the eyes of union members. Some concern nursing staff, others psychologists, specialized workers, for example. They can represent several thousand dollars for the workers concerned. They must be renegotiated to meet specific or specific needs.
However, several bonuses were already due to end on March 31. The government renewed them on two occasions, until September 30. Then on Monday he announced that he would extend them until mid-October. Mme LeBel points out that these bonuses alone are worth 600 million.
Minister LeBel maintains that the unions “have not made any significant movement” to date to lighten and facilitate this long negotiation. “I’m going to set an example” by reducing employer demands, she explains, by doing “cleaning, pruning”. She hastens to add that she expects a similar gesture from the union counterpart.
“If we succeed in reducing the objectives of employer and union demands to the essentials, we have a real chance for December. Because if I move and they don’t move, we have several months,” she summarizes.
The union demands were filed last fall and the government filed its demands in December.
Meanwhile, the common front unions continue to solicit strike mandates from their members. Assemblies are planned until mid-October. The minister assures that she is not calling into question this right to strike. But she wishes it didn’t come to that.