Recruitment of agency workers | Quebec prepares its “national strategy”

(Quebec) At a time when the government is negotiating with the unions, the rules of collective agreements, such as the notion of seniority, pose an “obstacle” to bringing the workforce of private agencies back into the public fold, believe the health establishments.

After having adopted its law in the spring to wean the health and social services network from employment agencies, the Legault government now hopes to recruit these thousands of workers and convince them to join the public sector. He is preparing a “national strategy” to achieve his objective, we learned.

However, the task promises to be arduous. A working document obtained by The Press reports a series of obstacles and “levers” named by health establishments themselves to attract these employees. At the heart of concerns: local and national collective agreements.

The integration of the independent workforce also adds to the complexity of the negotiations between the government and the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) – the largest nurses’ union, which is striking again on Thursday. and Friday.

Among the constraints, health establishments also note issues in the organization of work, such as the presence of “mandatory overtime” (TSO), “the omnipresence of unfavorable shifts” and the absence of available day shifts, which is unattractive.

The Legault government has its sights set on abolishing the use of employment agencies by 2026, and from 2024 for large urban centers like Montreal and Laval. “Adjoining” regions such as Mauricie and the Laurentides will have to do so by October 2025.

It is also “a grouping of establishments” targeted by the first and second waves which participated in the survey targeting the anticipated challenges, we can read. The document does not specify which ones.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) explained to The Press that it is “a working document” having “served to fuel the discussion between the ministry and some establishments in the network, on October 25”, with a view to developing “a concerted strategy” to respect the objectives of the law.

That said, “no ministerial orientation has been sent to the network to date,” we add in an email.

We also warn that it is “premature to assume that the information contained in the document will reflect the directions and targets” of the final plan.

According to the document, establishments should implement “identified and prioritized actions” for recruitment in January 2024 in order to assess the impacts as of March 31, 2024.

We also indicate a recruitment target of 80% of the independent workforce, which has never been mentioned in the public space by the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé. The latter has always expressed the wish to bring as many caregivers back into the public as possible.

The minister’s office indicated that it did not want to comment “given that it is an unofficial ministry working document and has not been approved.”

Considerable challenges

Still, the document gives an overview of the challenge that awaits the network in convincing agency employees to join it.

To attract nurses and beneficiary attendants to the public network, the CISSS and CIUSSS see several “obstacles” in the provisions provided for in collective agreements.

Added to this are issues related to the organization of services, the capacity to accommodate new employees and distinct regional realities. Each “analysis of obstacles” is accompanied by “the levers” available in the network to counter them.

For example, promoting “different types of schedules” and the provision of training and professional development programs. The document indicates that the attraction “strategy” of each establishment “must be built with current levers” and that the actions that will be integrated “must make it possible to resolve or significantly reduce the impact of the identified obstacles”.

This should also make it possible to “maintain the same level of service to the population” after the departure of the agencies.

Difficult negotiations with the union

According to our information, the recognition of a certain seniority for agency employees, who can sometimes work in the same establishment for several years, is one of the issues at the negotiating table between the government and the FIQ.

It was also the union which, at the time, recommended to Minister Christian Dubé to legislate to put an end to the use of agencies in the health network.

When presenting his bill last February, the Minister of Health said he was “very, very open” to adjustments being made during the renewal of collective agreements for agency workers “who would like to return to the public.”

Prime Minister François Legault went even further: “I have a message for the nurses’ unions: they must come to the table to negotiate if we want to abolish private employment agencies.”

According to the president of the FIQ, the recognition of seniority “is only cosmetic” and does not “address the real problem”.

“Ask 100 healthcare professionals in a private agency if recognition of their seniority would be enough to bring them back; 99 times out of 100, they will tell you no,” laments Julie Bouchard, in a statement sent to The Press.

A survey carried out in February by the largest association of private agencies among 2,000 of their employees revealed that for 8 out of 10 healthcare workers, it is “unlikely” to return to the public sector by retirement.