Health and social services unions invite the government to talk about a plan for the summer
While it looks like the situation in the health and social services network will be just as bad as last summer, labour organizations are coming together to demand that the government reach an agreement on a plan with them to get through the summer. The end of the temporary premiums on May 14 and the significant delays in payments due are affecting staff morale as the summer approaches.
Labour organizations fear managers will overuse overtime and mandatory overtime to maintain services. In the hopes of avoiding service interruptions, labour organization spokespeople gathered at a press briefing to ask Christian Dubé, Minister of Health and Social Services, to drop unilateral measures once and for all and to move from words to action.
“We are sorry that the government does not care more about the reality in the field and the level of staff exhaustion in maintaining public services. What is Minister Dubé’s plan in the coming weeks and months to fill the thousands of shifts that won’t be covered? We want to work together because we don’t have the luxury of going with the flow and hoping that everything goes fine in the health network this summer. That would be hiding our heads in the sand.”
The APTS, FIQ, FP-CSN, FSQ-CSQ, FSSS-CSN, SCFP, SPGQ and SQEES-FTQ
Stop improvising and plan
The government’s authoritarian and unilateral management style during the pandemic really shook the network staff’s trust in the government. The mess around late payments also turned members’ discontent up another notch.
“Ending the temporary premiums and perpetuating late payments does not help at all as the pandemic continues. The summer will also still be difficult because of staff vacations, which are essential for our members to regain their strength. There needs to be structural measures for covering services in the summer. The Minister of Health and Social Services has a great deal of work to do to regain our members’ trust. The first step would be to not shrug off his responsibilities. He cannot abandon the network staff for another summer, nor leave them all of the stress of maintaining services. It is imperative that we sit down now to plan the coming weeks together and agree on solutions,”
The APTS, FIQ, FP-CSN, FSQ-CSQ, FSSS-CSN, SCFP, SPGQ and SQEES-FTQ