(Quebec) Nurses from all over the network are tired of waiting for the payment of “several thousand” dollars in retroactive salary and “COVID” bonuses. With their faces uncovered, they have been revealing the sums due on social networks since Wednesday.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“Julie, nurse clinician in a CHSLD. I am owed $8,904.43,” read a notebook kept by a uniformed healthcare worker. “Audrey, auxiliary nurse. I am owed $3741.42,” wrote another. The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) launched a new offensive on Wednesday for the Legault government to deploy emergency measures to pay the sums due to nurses.
PHOTO FROM THE FIQ WEBSITE
This nurse clinician in a CHSLD took part in the offensive with the hashtag #mobiliséspourêtrepayées.
The photos posted on social networks with the hashtag #mobiliséspourêtrepayées show the fed up of nurses in the health network who are waiting for the payment of sums amounting to several thousand dollars each. “They simply take a sheet and write: here is what I am owed. They want to be paid,” summarizes Nathalie Lévesque, vice-president, labor relations, of the FIQ.
PHOTO FROM THE FIQ WEBSITE
This licensed practical nurse also took part in the FIQ initiative.
It’s because the main software used by the payroll system is unable to pay the retroactive salary adjustment and the premiums due to the nurses affiliated with the FIQ, who renewed their collective agreement on October 10th. The sums of the retroactive salary adjustment should have been paid no later than January 3, ie 90 days after the entry into force of the new employment contract.
Not before March… or even June
Moreover, the specific premium of 3.5%, granted unconditionally to the 76,000 healthcare professionals, was only paid in certain regions. “It’s absurd, honestly […] The amounts are sometimes exorbitant”, launches Mme Levesque. The union ensures that Quebec has not provided a “specific date” for the payments. Establishments have mentioned February and March, but nothing is less certain, according to the FIQ.
We were presented with a picture of the situation [au ministère de la Santé], there is no date given for payments, even for the fixed premium of 3.5%. One of our affiliate members even told us that his establishment had told him that the sums due would not be paid until June. So you see how far it can go! This is unacceptable.
Nathalie Lévesque, vice-president, labor relations, of the FIQ
Last week, The Press reported that similar delays affected all personnel in the health and social services network. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, promised that “all sums will be paid to the last dollar”. For its part, the Ministry confirmed that the “institutions of the RSSS [réseau de la santé et des services sociaux] are actively working to update all the measures as soon as possible”.
A meeting took place between the FIQ, Minister Dubé and the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, last week. “Minister Dubé has promised to put quick solutions in place,” reports Ms.me Levesque. This is what the union is also asking for, that means be deployed to start payments, which could mean the manual payment of sums, for example.
“We are in the same place as in November now,” laments Mme Levesque.
The union says that these delays and the lack of a payment horizon are undermining adherence to the initiatives put in place by the Legault government to attract and retain health care workers in the network.